Hopeless Paradise
by DarkblazePaladin93
Summary: Set in an universe separate from the canon universes. Featuring many familiar Digimon and several original characters, this story draws elements from several of the Digimon series while still maintaing some feel of originality. *DISCONTINUED*
1. Negotiations and Battle

_Thirty years ago, a group of scientists endeavored to create an alternate plane of existence. This group was called "Paradiso". The few inhabitants they initially placed into this program were of varied levels. Over time, the mysterious creatures - named Digimon, a combination of the words "Digital" and "Monsters" - strangely developed, gaining sentient minds. The digitally engineered world, which was unsurprisingly named the "Digital World", soon began to increase in size as well. It was initially created to be 100 meters in length, but soon it began to increase to be exactly the same size of our own world. "Paradiso" added a small program, dubbed "Yggdrasil", to their creation, hoping to add stability to the program. Soon the ambitions of "Paradiso" received many questions, placing the group within the center of much controversy._

_The leader of the project, Allen Fenrir, said his dream was to create another realm of existence so as to create a paradise for humans to live in. While the technology was available to create the program itself, there was no known technology for people to become a part of the program successfully yet. Beta Testers signed up to participate in a Virtual Reality Simulator to test the safety of living within the world, but the Beta Testers died of unknown causes. As such, "Paradiso" was dissolved and the "Digital World Project" was terminated. Allen Fenrir's career was in shambles, and the man soon disappeared._

_Despite termination, the Digital World still continued to develop. Was it a glitch, or a fail-safe program within that prevented permanent deletion? Regardless, the Digital World still existed, but there was no one on Earth that knew._

Gallantmon could not believe it; it was rare for him to be nervous. He was among the strongest of the Royal Knights, those sworn to uphold the justice of the Digital World. He sat in the conference room of the Tower of Babel, and the only other occupant in the room was Barbamon, the Demon Lord of Greed and the master strategist of the Seven Great Demon Lords. Gallantmon may have been one of the best candidates to represent the Royal Knights in this meeting, but it was Duftmon who was the leading strategist among the Royal Knights. Sending him would have been much more suitable for a Digimon of Barbamon's caliber.

Gallantmon was garbed entirely in a suit of white armor, with the addition of a red cape and a helmet in the shape of a dragon's head. In his right hand he held a silver lance, and in his left hand was a large, white shield with a golden trim engraved with the symbols of the Digimon's written language engraved alongside the edge. The center of the shield consisted of three triangles with a fourth inverted triangle in the middle. Barbamon, on the other hand, resembled an old man, dressed in a dark green cloak with a blue top. In his right hand was a scepter with a skull stuck to the top of it, with a red orb in its mouth. He had a golden mask with a long nose, obscuring his eyes. His long, grey hair flowed to his waist. He wore a necklace made entirely of red jewels embedded in gold. Finally, he had four red wings of a demon.

"What, it's just you?" Barbamon teased. Gallantmon remained calm, knowing that this meeting was supposed to negotiate the peace of the Digital World. The continents of Stoichea, Embolio, and Ios were at war, placing the rest of the Digital World at risk of entering the conflict and the ruling organizations, collectively known as the Overseers, who were supposed to settle matters.

"The Sovereigns and the Olympus Twelve were supposed to send representatives as well," Gallantmon answered at last.

"Are they not the Olympus Six now? Half of their members have been lost to this war, so I'm unsure if they should be considered part of the Overseers for much longer."

"Neither should the Demon Lords. Each of you are known for your treacherous ways, and you are the most infamous of the seven in that regard."

"That's different. We just have different ideas, we're not lacking in power. You can still trust us."

"I shouldn't even have to consider trusting you after what you've done. The only reason we allow the seven of you to live is because of the balance you present the Digital World as our opposition. The Sovereigns and the Olympus Twelve-"

"Six," Barbamon corrected.

"They've each sworn neutrality. As such, the co-existence of the Royal Knights and the Demon Lords also presents neutrality."

"How do you exist as the force the neutralizes us? There are thirteen of you knights, but there are only seven of us."

"What are you suggesting, a challenge?" Gallantmon assumed.

"Well, if you wish to put it in such mild terms," Barbamon taunted.

"Your death will mean little," Gallantmon declared, readying his weapon. "Even if we'll still outnumber you, I think Yggdrasil's ideas of balance need improvement."

"Lightning Joust!" A streak of lightning shot at the Demon Lord from his lance. The Demon Lord batted the attack away with his staff.

"Gallantmon, you say killing me will mean nothing," Barbamon taunted. "Yggdrasil will have your head for this."

"But you can be easily replaced, can't you?" Gallantmon queried. "And I just said Yggdrasil needs to improve."

Barbamon chuckled. "I am the leading strategist of the Demon Lords. My cunning is irreplaceable." The Demon Lord rise his staff, which suddenly began to gather flames of red and black near the orb encrusted at the top. "Lucemon can be troublesome when he's angry, but he'll get over it."

More flames gathered in the sky at Barbamon's request.

"I'm not going to wait around any longer for this," Gallantmon muttered to himself as he held his shield before him, the insignia on it glowing. "Final Elysian!" A beam of yellow light shot out from the shield and towards Barbamon.

"Hmm, it's not enough," Barbamon snarled, leaping into the air. "But Lucemon will be less angry at me for using less energy. Pandemonium Lost!"

"What?" Gallantmon could not believe his ears. The black flames now encircled the Royal Knight, and the floor immediately rose astronomically in temperature. Instinctively, Gallantmon jumped into the air, watching as the floor burnt until it was nothing. The flames continued to descend down the Tower.

"All those years of work, wasted," the Royal Knight lamented.

"I'm still here!" Barbamon's voice howled. The Royal Knight shifted his gaze towards Barbamon before he realized the Demon Lord's staff was pointed right in his face.

"Dark Inferno," Barbamon muttered. Gallantmon was immediately ensnared in a crimson blaze. The Royal Knight fell headfirst downwards, falling to the incinerating Tower. The impact sent Gallantmon plummeting through several floors of the ruined tower, the Royal Knight dissolving into shards of data.

"You," Gallantmon muttered. "You'll pay for this."

As the rest of Gallantmon faded into nothing, Barbamon howled with laughter over his victory. Rising from the flames, a red and white egg with the same symbol as Gallantmon materialized.

"Lightning Javelin!" Barbamon screamed, throwing his staff at the egg. Unfortunately, the egg seemed to shoot off somewhere. Barbamon chose not to follow, deciding instead to return to the Demon Lords.

The streams of data seemed to flow endlessly in the Castle of the Royal Knights. Right now, there were only six present: Crusadermon, Dynasmon, Examon, UlforceVeedramon, Magnamon, and Omnimon, all seated at a Round Table with seven empty seats. Crusadermon wore entirely pink armor and held a large yellow rectangular shirt over his right hand. Dynasmon wore white armor and a horned helmet and had two purple wings. Examon was a red, draconic Digimon wielding a black spear in his right hand. UlforceVeedramon's armor was similar to Dynasmon's, only his helmet was much more like a dragon's head and his wings were blue. Magnamon simply wore gold armor. Omnimon, who was much taller than the rest of them, wore white armor with a cape that was white on front and red on the back. His left hand was in the form of a dragon's head and his right hand was in the form of a wolf's.

"Gallantmon should be back by now," Magnamon commented, breaking the silence. His statement seemed to be directed at Omnimon more than the others. He knew the Omnimon and Gallantmon were like brothers, and he also knew Omnimon would be the most upset if something had happened to Gallantmon.

"I knew we should have sent you, Omnimon," Crusadermon admitted. Very few of the Royal Knights could stand him, especially since he was more sarcastic than even Duftmon. "But Gallantmon insisted on going, even though you and Duftmon were remarkably tied for the best choice. Well, it's no surprise that you were nominated, but Duftmon? Oh, to even _consider_ him!" Crusadermon held a rose close to his nose delicately and chuckled lightly.

"Duftmon is useful as our strategist. He would have been perfect to negotiate with Barbamon and the others."

"We never did receive word on who the other attendees would be." UlforceVeedramon pointed out observantly, leaning forward and interlocking his fingers, holding his hands close to his mouth.

"It is hard for the Sovereigns to decide on their representatives." Magnamon added in. "There are only four of them, and their 'pets' the Devas are even worse at coming to an agreement."

"But the Sovereigns alternate with each meeting, little brother." UlforceVeedramon corrected.

"Ah, of course. I apologize for my ignorance. That still does not excuse why the Olympus Warriors did not send someone. I realize it is not within my jurisdiction to choose whom, but out of the survivors, I would have preferred Neptunmon. He seems like a good candidate for the leader, what with Jupitermon and the others gone.

"And it is because they have lost half their numbers that the Olympus Warriors could not send someone." Omnimon confirmed. "They chose to prioritize their own numbers above the fate of the Digital World. A selfish choice."

"Omnimon, what does Imperialdramon have to say in this matter?" Magnamon asked.

"Imperialdramon has sent the others to find Alphamon." Omnimon revealed.

"The Lord of the Empty Seat?" Crusadermon asked. "Hah! Is he not supposed to possess the X-Antibody, Lord Yggdrasil's very own creation that was supposed to signify those not meant to live in Yggdrasil's new world? The main source of this conflict is in fact the X Digimon themselves. Would that not mean Yggdrasil is the true catalyst behind this war?"

"You speak blasphemy!" Dynasmon snapped. "I expected more from you, Crusadermon."

"You wish for me to hold my tongue?" Crusadermon asked. "Alright, for you Dyny." He held his rose at Dynasmon as a taunt.

"Heh, so when are you two going to tie the knot?" Magnamon teased. "It's been so long since you two started swinging di-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence." Crusadermon warned. His rose exploded into many petals, only to be batted away from Magnamon. "Well, you're no fun."

The attention of all Royal Knights was caught by an egg appearing in a flash of light, landing gently in Gallantmon's seat. None of them dared to speak, especially in front of Omnimon.

The Royal Knights exchanged frequent looks at the egg, each other, and Omnimon for what seemed like a long time. The awkward silence was broken when Omnimon uttered one single order.

"I'm going to Yggdrasil. Tell Imperialdramon to call off the hunt. We have far more pressing matters than a world war."

Far away, in state of California, two boys, Alex Kadrou and Yusuke Echizen, were walking along a sidewalk. The younger of the two, Alex, was dressed in a short-sleeved white shirt and black jeans, moving his black hair out of his eyes. The older, Yusuke, was dressed in more of a school uniform, his brown hair well kept. Having just finished the school year, the two were trying to think of what to do, deciding to take some time walking around town. Making their way to a bus stop, they saw a girl with long brown hair, which was strangely covered in a number of clips and pins. She had green eyes, a tanned, boney figure, and a plaid shirt that someone would find at the Men's Department in a clothing store.

The girl kept looking at her watch, then out at the street, assuring both boys that she was waiting for the bus. It was a natural thing to assume when you see someone at a bus stop. Yusuke made his way over to the girl.

"So what's your name?" Alex asked. The girl jumped in shock, not noticing the boy before, but her surprise immediately turned to anger.

"Why did you sneak up on me?" she demanded angrily. It took the boys a moment to notice, but she had a faint French accent.

Alex held his hands up to defend himself "I was just-"

"The bus doesn't come for another hour." Yusuke told the girl, by pointing at the schedule beside the bench. The girl looked at the schedule, clearly embarrassed that she had not noticed it before.

The girl turned to Yusuke. "Oh, thanks. Guess I'll just walk, then."

"You sure you don't want someone to walk with you," said Alex.

"No, I'm fine. Thanks though."

It wouldn't be long before the three of them would meet again.


	2. Suspicion

Crimson flames lit a darkened room, filled with seven enormous thrones. At the top of each throne was a different crest, each of different colors, which signified a specific planet or star in the solar system. A violet symbol representing Saturn, a pale green symbol representing Venus, a dark blue symbol representing Mars, a yellow symbol, standing for Jupiter, a light blue symbol representing Mercury, a dark green symbol representing the moon. At far end of the room, a simple orange insignia, representing the sun, was engraved in the final throne. Seated in the highest throne was a small boy with ten angels wings, with two more sprouting from his blonde hair, with was parted so that strands of his hair were in the shapes of horns. The boy wore what seemed like a toga and golden bracelets on his wrests and ankles. He had a purple tattoo on his upper-left body.

The young child was Lucemon, the leader of Seven Great Demon Lords of the Digital World, and the embodiment of pride. Even more noteworthy was that he was only a Rookie-level Digimon. The other Demon Lords were absent, but he was expecting Barbamon's return. The Demon Lord of Greed appeared in his throne, the one representing Saturn, in a burst of flame.

"You used that attack, Barbamon." Lucemon muttered coldly. "Why?"

"It was the best way to ensure Gallantmon's death." Barbamon smiled.

"You knew that attack siphons power from our home, Barbamon. I watched your entire battle, and I know you didn't need to use Pandemonium Lost."

"Oh well, at least I killed him."

A cut appeared right between Barbamon's midsection. It took him a moment to comprehend what had just happened before he realize that Lucemon had delivered the attack with just his right hand, judging by the fact Lucemon's hand was now covered in blood. The small Demon Leader licked the blood that was left on his hand, sucking on his fingers to ensure he had not missed a single drop.

"Your data tastes marvelous." Lucemon smiled pleasurably. "So, are you going to use that attack again when you have a clear victory?"

"N-no, sire." Barbamon answered reluctantly.

Lucemon smiled before floating backwards towards his throne.

"I'm happy to hear that. How is the Chimera Project progressing?"

"Leviamon and Belphemon's troops should be gathering the remaining test subjects as we speak."

"'Should be'?" Lucemon repeated with a glare.

"My apologies, I mean they are progressing at more ideal rate than we had anticipated."

"Hmph, see to it that they are. The Chimera Project itself is even but a small step towards finding what we seek."

Barbamon bowed to his master respectfully. Even though he was a Demon Lord, Lucemon's attack had cut too deep. It would take a while to heal.

When Barbamon had left, two more figures had entered the room. One of them was female, dressed in a tattered, purple and black kimono with two withered wings protruding from her back as two smaller wings were positioned between her soldiers. The other was male, dressed in a biker suit, wearing a purple helmet revealing three red eyes, and had a tail.

"Lilithmon, Beelzemon." Lucemon welcomed, addressing the Demon Lords of Lust and Gluttony respectively. "Yes, I had forgotten that I had not given either of you my orders. I give my sincerest of apologies. Consider it your reward for consistently proving yourselves to be competent time and again." Lucemon went silent for a second to think upon the rest of the Demon Lords. "Where is Daemon?" he finally demanded. Lilithmon and Beelzemon were well aware that Lucemon had grown suspicious of Daemon rather recently, but their loyalty unquestionably belonged to Lucemon.

"He is still on his own little search, I'm afraid," Lilithmon finally answered.

"He still believes that Arkadimon exists? I admire his tenacity, but it's pointless."

"Lord Lucemon," Beelzemon began. "A thousand pardons if I am talking out of turn, but do you not see it fit to endeavor to evolve?"

"What are you suggesting, Beelzemon?" Lucemon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Indeed, your powers are unique for even a Rookie Digimon, and I would dare not think otherwise, but do you not think that you could keep Daemon in his place if you were at least a Champion?"

Lilithmon seemed to take in the idea of an older, potentially more handsome Lucemon with much delight. Lucemon himself could tell that much just from the grin the Demon Lord of Lust had on her face.

"For your sake, Lilithmon, I shall."

Lilithmon brushed her fingers through her black hair. "Do not feel obligated to do such because of me, my king. But, Beelzemon raises a good point about Daemon. Lucemon, shall we exterminate him?"

"That is not necessary for now," Lucemon answered. "Despite your fears, I see him as no threat for now. If either of you can provide proof for his extermination, then I shall consider it."

Lilithmon and Beelzemon exchanged a glare, understanding that Lucemon expected them to do just as he had suggested. Without a word, they turned away and went outside the door that had entered through.

* * *

Alex made his way up to a large villa. It was not as big as a mansion, but it was still pretty big. Alex looked at the address listed in the text message Daniel Mellow had sent him, and it was the same address as the building that stood before him. The grass was quite green, and the building had to at least be three stories high and just as wide, judging by the size.

He had never been to Daniel's house before, since he had only recently become acquainted with the boy. Daniel was shy, but Alex somehow managed to help him with that. They were in the same technology for the school year, and Daniel was able to provide help whenever he could. He hadn't seen that many people hang around Daniel, but Alex still thought Daniel was a nice enough guy. Yusuke's earlier comment had raised a burning question though: Just what was the movie that Daniel that gotten, and how?

Regardless, Alex rang the doorbell to alert Daniel.

No response.

He rang the doorbell again.

Still no response.

He didn't want to ring the doorbell again, but he also didn't want to leave. Daniel was a nice guy, and it just wouldn't sit right with Alex if he had just left now.

He was about to resort to sitting on the porch when the door finally began to open. "Alex?" was all that came from the inside. Alex turned to see that Daniel was at the door, but a chain kept the door hooked to the wall. Daniel pulled down the chain an opened the door completely, granting Daniel entrance.

"Did I keep you waiting?" Daniel asked timidly. He had short-cut brown hair and was wearing a t-shirt and trousers. On his left arm was a red-and-black wristband. His eyes were brown, and he wore a thin golden necklace.

"Nah," Alex reassured him. "I only had to ring the doorbell twice."

"I don't think I had the first ring. Sorry about that."

"So, where are your folks?"

"My dad's at a business meeting and my mom's hanging out with her friends."

Alex stopped to take a look around. The house looked magnificent. A single chandelier hung from the ceiling, but Alex could tell the building had only two floors. The walls were painted light brown, and the carpet was smooth. Paintings were hung all around, and Alex could see an entrance to the pool, which had a diving board. The magnificence of the structure he was in now made his house look like a run-down shack by comparison.

"The theater room's this way." Daniel told Alex, pointing directly forward. The theater room, which wasn't that long of a walk from the front door, had a large flat-screen television. There were cabinets and shelves all around, and a typical refrigerator. There was a back door on the side opposite of the T.V. "I'll get some snacks. Do you think you can set up the film?"

"Sure," Alex answered. On the wooden table he was able to find a DVD. For some reason, there was no label on the DVD.

"So, what is this film supposed to be?" Alex asked.

"Oh, my father gave it to me. I haven't watched it yet, but I was thinking that you might want to see it.

Alex felt a little awkward with how that sentence was phrased. "Well, I'm glad you asked me to come."

Daniel gave Alex some soda before he went to sit in his own chair. He placed two bags of popcorn on top of the glass frame in the table.

"I don't have many friends, and I'm not so comfortable talking to girls."

Alex successfully managed to resist rolling his eyes - much to his own surprise - but he still didn't want to here Daniel's sob story. He tried to avoid making things progress like a cheesy family-friendly film, but he felt obligated to return the favor for Daniel.

"Don't worry, just be confident in yourself." Alex advised. He hated himself for being so corny, but he reminded himself it could have been worse.

A sudden knock came on the front door. "That's odd, I didn't invite anyone else." Daniel said. "And my parents have the keys to the door."

The knock came again, this time accompanied by a man's voice. "This is the police, open up!"

"The police?" Daniel asked in a panic.

"But why?" Alex wondered, afraid of having a criminal record. "What could they want with us?"

"We know you're in there!" the policeman called once again.

"Maybe he didn't get it legally!" Daniel answered with fear. "Oh, I hope that's not true. Alex, you have to get out of here! You didn't do anything, so run away!"

"Alright," Alex said. He didn't want Daniel to get in trouble, but if Daniel insisted on Alex leaving, then he wouldn't argue. Alex opened the backdoor, ran through the bushes, and ran across the lawn to safety. He was amazed that the police didn't even attempt to surround the place.

* * *

Omnimon stood within a white room made entirely of crystal. In the center of the room stood a blue orb placed atop a small white pedestal.

"You have arrived, Omnimon," a voice welcomed, seeming to come from the orb.

"Milord, I trust that you saw the events that transpired at the Tower of Babel and the meeting I have just come from?"

"Indeed. What is it you wish to talk about?"

"The Demon Lords may be planning a revolt. Sir, I beg you to allow me to lead a resistance movement. At least let me keep them at bay!"

"No."

"No? Why, Lord Yggdrasil? I cannot let you turn a blind eye towards Gallantmon's death!"

"I have analyzed the dialogue Gallantmon and Barbamon exchanged, and Barbamon raises a good point. The Royal Knights do outnumber the Demon Lords. For this reason, I will allow Gallantmon's passing. If five more of the Royal Knights are to die, I would still allow it.

"You would willingly let nearly half of the Royal Knights be slain? That is madness!"

"Madness? No, this is balance. I forbid bringing the Demon Lords any harm."

Omnimon turned away, shocked by his God's command.

"I am saddened, though," Yggdrasil admitted.

"Why is that?" Omnimon asked.

"Despite being programmed to be an omnipotent being meant to stabilize the Digital World, I cannot read the minds of others. A fault in my programming that I still lament."

Omnimon refused to speak further, knowing that Yggdrasil could easily delete him.

"Sir," Omnimon began without turning back to face his God. "Before I leave, at least grant me permission to seek aid from the outside in regards to the elimination of the X Digimon."

"Seek aid from the outside? I suppose you could, but how would you do that?"

The question was enough to make Omnimon turn around once more.

"I believe that you can do that," Omnimon answered.

"Perhaps. I have not attempted to do so ever since the Failed Apocalypse, but I do think that my powers have grown to such a level in the years since then."

"So, you will allow it?"

Yggdrasil grew silent to ponder Omnimon's question.

"You wish for Imperialdramon to call off the hunt, and yet seek my permission to call for help from the outside. Why?"

Omnimon could not answer, and he knew Yggdrasil understood just why Omnimon had made such a request.

"Alright, if you insist. If you wish to avenge Gallantmon, I will let you do so, but alone. Outside help would also quicken the elimination of the X Digimon."

* * *

Yusuke had decided to put down his book, _Norse Mythology and Other Folklore_, for now. Instead he decided that he would go online and discuss it. He placed the book on his desk right beside the monitor.

Accessing his Facebook account, he decided to update his status.

"So I've started this book on Norse Mythology," Yusuke said out loud to himself as he tapped the keys on his keyboard. "It's a good book so far."

He could not resist continuing the enthralling book and reached for his book to begin reading once more.

After a while, he had decided to reload the page on his computer, curious to see the replies. His chat box was opened as he was contacted by a girl named Kekio Suzaki. He didn't even know her in real life, and they were only friends because they knew the same people.

"Hey, can I ask you a favor?" she asked him. Yusuke didn't know how to respond; he didn't even know this girl.

He reluctantly replied, "Sure, with what?"

"I've got a little "problem" I need help with. The police can't help me, and some of my friends said that you might be able to help."

Yusuke shrugged. "I guess."

"Cool! Meet me at the GameStop by the mall on Saturday!"

Legend Zero debated with himself, wondering how to act upon the message. He didn't mind going to GameStop, but this was pretty strange. He replied asking when he should be there. He waited several minutes before the girl finally answered.

"Is 2:30 good?"

Yusuke shrugged. "Sounds good enough. How should I find you?"

"You can see my profile pic, right? Just look for me."

Yusuke took a look at her profile picture. She had long, brown hair, and she had a petite head. He got a good idea of what she looked like, so he was ready for Saturday.

* * *

A mechanical Digimon, shaped like a beetle of the height of a small child, was flying through a forest, trying to make its escape from the yellow cloth that was chasing after it. Its attempt was in vain, however, as it was struck down when the cloth actually managed to impale it. The Digimon shattered into bits of data, which was promptly absorbed by none other than Crusadermon himself.

"Hmm, so this is what an X Digimon's data feels like when its absorbed." Crusadermon plucked a flower from a nearby bush and sniffed it. "I've slain a couple Kokuwamon's before, but never an X variant."

"Crusadermon!" Dynasmon snapped sternly. "We are supposed to be looking for Imperialdramon in order to call off this hunt. Omnimon ordered us."

"Oh, Omnimon this, Omnimon that," Crusadermon complained. "I'm tired of listening to that egomaniac."

"I for one believe Omnimon is quite a reliable member. He knows responsibility, unlike you."

"Oh, Dyny, you wound me," Crusadermon teased. "Why don't you go off and marry him, since you obviously love him more than little ol' me."

"Stop using that irritating nickname," Dynasmon growled. "I'm amazed Yggdrasil even selected you to become a Royal Knight."

"My powers cannot be argued with."

Two red streams of energy came bursting towards the bickering Royal Knights. Crusadermon and Dynasmon turned to see the attack came from a red, mechanical behemoth with two cannons strapped to its back and long claws.

"A Chaosdramon X," Dynasmon stated. "Even the regular ones can be a pain."

"I'm sure it won't stand a chance against the two of us though." Crusadermon remarked.

Dynasmon laughed. "I'm leaving this one to you. If you like to deal with X Digimon, then have fun against this guy." Dynasmon flew off above the trees, off to catch up on the other Royal Knights.

"Still," Dynasmon said to himself. "When Crusadermon killed that Digimon, it didn't turn into an egg. Instead it turned right into data. Usually you would have to destroy the egg before that happens, and I know Crusadermon cannot bypass that."

Examon, UlforceVeedramon, and Magnamon had found Imperialdramon. The search did not take much long, as he was overseeing the mountains and the forests around him from the surface of a cliff. Imperialdramon wore black armor with a face of a dragon on his chest. On his head was what looked like a crown, and through his armor came red wings.

"Omnimon has news?" Imperialdramon asked, knowing that they would not be standing before him unless Omnimon wanted them there.

"Imperialdramon," Examon began. "Call off the hunt of the X Digimon."

"Why?"

Then Examon and his comrades exchanged a look, but UlforceVeedramon ultimately decided to answer for all of them.

"Gallantmon was slain, by Barbamon."

"I see," Imperialdramon said with hesitation. "Very well, I will-"

"Continue with the hunt."

The four Royal Knights turned to see Omnimon had arrived.

"But Omnimon." Magnamon said. "You asked us specifically to come here so that we may end the hunt!"

"Yes, but Yggdrasil has decided that the hunt will continue."

Magnamon nodded. "I understand." He dashed off, Examon and UlforceVeedramon leaving as well.

"Imperialdramon," Omnimon began, turning to his equal. "Where are Leopardmon and Craniummon; I must speak with them."

"I will not ask why you wish to speak with them, but they are currently scouring Ios for X Digimon."

"Excellent, then I shall join them."

* * *

Hana had finished her boring walk home. Walking in house, she gave a tired "hello" to her parents, making her way upstairs and into her room. The black-haired boy at the bus stop was right, it would have been more interesting if she had someone to walk with her. Of course, her dad wouldn't be too thrilled to see her walking home with some suspicious boy dressed in all black.

Her hair was feeling hot with all the pins she had stuck to her hair, so she removed them one a time, placing them all on her nightstand that was placed next to her bed.

"Hana, dinner's ready!" her father called. She was excited to hear that, since tonight they were having pizza.

"I'll be down there in a minute!" she answered. She had changed into her nightclothes, which simply consisted of a yellow T-shirt and green pants, since she knew she wouldn't be going anywhere else for the night. It was really only at night when she wore "feminine" clothes.

She ran downstairs, much to the anger of her mother, snagged three slices of garlic cheese pizza, and grabbed a Mountain Dew from the refrigerator.

"Ah, now would you like at that," Hana's father had called out. Outside, the family saw a police car driving through the street, and Hana could have sworn she saw someone in the back seat. Her father must have gotten a better look than she did, since he said "Kids these days."


	3. Mystery

The Royal Knights had decided to temporarily call off their hunt of the X Digimon. All of them were floating high above the ocean in a circular formation with the exception for Omnimon, Duftmon, and Craniummon, who had all gone off for unknown reasons. Crusadermon was able to survive the Chaosdramon X thanks to the help of Susanoomon and Rapidmon. Susanoomon's armor consisted of a red torso and blue legs. On his right hand was a wolf's head and on his left hand was a dragon's head. Rapidmon had the appearance of a human-sized anthropomorphic rabbit wearing golden armor.

"Imperialdramon," Susanoomon began. "Why is it that you wish to call off the hunt?"

"Do not worry," Imperialdramon assured him. "We shall resume the hunt once we finish discussing the matter of Gallantmon's death. Omnimon has told us that Lord Yggdrasil wholeheartedly accepts Gallantmon's death."

The reactions of every Royal Knight said enough. Some were surprised at their God's decision, but others such as Crusadermon simply did not care.

"I have decided," Imperialdramon continued, "that we shall split up into groups. You can either remain here to eliminate any X Digimon that are left or you can come with me to see the Sovereigns."

Susanoomon stepped forward at Imperialdramon's statement. "I will lead the extermination group, but why do you wish to speak with the Sovereigns? Their neutrality will only put us at a further stalemate about what is to be done with the Demon Lords."

"I believe that we could at least sway the Sovereigns towards our side. I know that they do not agree with Yggdrasil, so they may in fact support only us Royal Knights."

The Royal Knights considered whom they should side with. Imperialdramon had founded the Royal Knights, but had split into two entities to fill two positions. Omnimon, who was once a part of Imperialdramon, would be a member of the Royal Knights, and Imperialdramon would act as the leader. Most of them accepted this, believing the legend of Alphamon, which foretold the arrival of a Digimon that would take leadership of the Royal Knights from Yggdrasil himself, to be false. They already had every seat filled, so their decision on who to side with easily reflected their beliefs.

"I shall go with you." UlforceVeedramon told Susanoomon. Magnamon looked at his older brother with a raised eyebrow.

"If my brother's following you, I guess I will too." he declared.

"I for one have faith in the Sovereigns," Dynasmon admitted, "I feel little need for slaughtering more of these X Digimon."

"Well then, I guess I'll be going with you, Dynasmon!" Crusadermon shouted with glee. "Just _touching_ those filthy beasts is insulting."

Dynasmon chuckled. "At least you're not calling me by that infuriating name."

"Oh, you miss it already, Dyny?" Crusadermon teased. Dynasmon was ready to throw Crusadermon at the closest mountain.

"I suppose I'll go with you as well." Examon, the dragon-like Royal Knight said. Rapidmon and Sleipmon, a Royal Knight in the form of a centaur with six legs wearing entirely red armor, exchanged a look, but ultimately decided to stand with Susanoomon without saying a word.

Imperialdramon looked at the three that had chosen to support him.

_Omnimon,_ Imperialdramon thought to himself. _I pray that whatever you have in mind will end this chaos._

_

* * *

_

Daniel was taken inside the police station in handcuffs by a tall, dark man. The cop was wearing sunglasses and had a goatee, although his hair was completely shaved. Inside the station, there were a number of officers tending to a variety of tasks. Some were using computers for research, some were organizing files, others were simply chatting to one another, and a couple of officers were just getting their daily cup of coffee.

"So, this is our culprit?" a man asked, approaching Daniel and the tall officer. He had short, light brown hair and a five-o'clock shadow. He was dressed in white shirt with black jeans and a black tie. The officer saluted the man, but a simple wave of the man's hand was enough to say "at ease".

"Kid, come with me." the middle-aged man told Daniel, opening the door to his office. The man sat in his chair, and Daniel took the chair on the opposite side of the desk.

"My name's Martin Mavroe," the man told Daniel. "We got a call saying that you had some illegal property. We have several of our officers searching your house right now. Something about a video, the person said."

"My dad gave it to me." Daniel told him. "Could you tell me who called you?"

"Well, you don't look like an all that troublesome kid, so I guess I can tell you. The call came from some guy claiming to be Marren Walker, but last I heard, he died."

"Marren Walker...was my grandfather."

Martin's raised an eyebrow at the boy's response.

"Well, I guess that would make sense. You look old enough to be his grandson. What's your mother's name?"

"Isabella Walker."

"Walker? You mean from that rich family? I guess she must have married into the family."

"Did you know my grandpa? Mom says she doesn't remember much about him."

"Yeah, he used to work with me. You've ever heard of the Paradiso Group?"

"Not really. I just know grandpa died working with them."

"Yeah, I heard. Either someone is pulling a practical joke on us, or someone just happens to have the name Marren Walker also. Where would your mother be right now?"

Daniel turned around to look at the clock hanging on the wall behind him. Six twenty-four.

"She should still be at work. She usually finishes up by now."

"I see. This has peaked my interest, so use this phone."

Daniel took the telephone that was situated on the desk and dialed his mother's cell phone number.

"Hello?" came a tender female voice on the other side.

"Mom..."

* * *

There was a change in plans. Yusuke's family had decided to go to the mall today. Fortunately, Yusuke had managed to inform Kekio, and she said she would make the necessary adjustments. His mother was looking for new clothes and his father was going to get some hardware tools. Yusuke on the other hand was off to GameStop, as his parents allowed him to wander off on his own when they went to the mall, just so long as he didn't get into trouble or anything. He was wondering if Kekio would actually show up like she said she would. Whether or not she did, it made no difference to Yusuke, since he would have gone to GameStop anyway.

He looked around the store until he saw the girl. He walked up to her and asked, "Kekio?"

The girl looked at him for a minute, trying to remember who he was. "Oh, you must be Yusuke!"

"You wanted to talk to me in person?"

"Yeah. I know this might sound strange, but I'm looking for help about finding my brother. I'm starting up a search group, and I need all the help I can get."

Yusuke took a step back, a bit disturbed by how blunt this girl was, as if she didn't find what she had just said abnormal.

She continued, "The police won't help, I already got my cousin to help me."

"Sorry, I'd love to help, but this is just rather random." Yusuke turned away, deciding he had wasted enough time.

"Aw, come on!"

"I said no. Even if you were to bribe me with a date or something, I can't help."

"Come on, have some heart."

"Fine, if you want, I'll help. Do you have even any idea where he is?"

The girl mumbled something that Yusuke thought he heard wrong.

"What?" Yusuke asked.

"I said he's in the Digital World." the girl said a lot more loudly than necessary, confusing other passersby as well as Yusuke.

_What is this girl on?_ Yusuke thought.

"Hey, Kekio!" another male voice called.

A blonde boy, looking about Yusuke's age, ran up to Kekio holding a bag.

"About the tracker...yeah, I couldn't find it."

"Well, that sucks."

"You guys are looking for a _tracker_ in a mall?"

"Is this Yusuke?" the boy asked.

"Yes, Derek, he said he's going to help us."

_And then I'm going to find out what stuff you two are sharing._

"So, what's your name?" the girl asked. "I'm Kekio. Kekio Suzaki. This is my cousin, Derek Namio."

"Yes, he and I go to the same school."

Derek and Kekio each put their right hands out, Kekio's right above Derek's.

"Come on, put you're hand in." Kekio ordered.

_What, you're the leader?_ Reluctantly, Yusuke agreed and place his hand on top of Kekio's. Kekio and Derek simultaneously withdrew their hands and Yusuke followed suit. What looked like this ragtag team's salute was finished.


	4. Request

During the time it took for Daniel's mother to arrive, Mavroe had brought him up to speed about the Paradiso group. Daniel's grandfather Marren Walker, age thirty-two at the time, had signed up as a beta tester for the "Digital World Project". Marren, in addition to about thirty-sum people, were hooked up to test a simulation. During the test run, every single one of them had died, collapsing.

"I was one of the scientists," Mavroe told Daniel. "I was Allen Fenrir's top assistant, and if the project turned out to be successful, I would have been promoted to Vice-Chairman and Allen would have been simply the Chairman. I don't know why, but the Director at that time had also volunteered as a beta tester. We had to shut the project down, and Allen was charged for the deaths of every last one of the beta testers. He took all the credit for what had happened, so the rest of us didn't even get implicated. He must have felt terrible..."

Daniel took down at his feet, grief-stricken by the tragic tale.

"So after that," Mavroe continued, "I decided to get a job here. I think my skills would have been more handy in the CSI, but beggars can't be choosers, right?"

A Hispanic officer came into the office. "Sir, this kid's parents are here." He waved a folder at Daniel, though the teenager assumed the files were related to a different case. Mr. Mavroe and Daniel got out of their seats and walked up to a couple. The woman seemed to be about forty years old and had black hair that was tied back. She was wearing glasses, a black coat, and a purse. The man looked about a year or two older and was dressed in a suit, not that much unlike Mavroe's. The woman embraced Daniel and gave him a kiss on his forehead while the man simply shook hands with Mavroe.

The man glanced over at his son and wife before turning his attention to the police chief. "My wife called me and said my son was over here. He's not in trouble, is he?"

Mavroe shook his head. "No, not at all. We've simply received a report saying that your son had his hands on some strange video." He turned to face the woman. "It's been a while, Isabella. I haven't seen you since your father's funeral."

It took her a moment to realize it, but she remembered that day. He was so young back then, maybe in his late twenties.

Daniel looked up to his mother. "Mom, he told me about Paradiso. It's so sad, what happened to grandpa."

Isabella nodded. "I was younger than you are now when it happened, so I don't remember much."

"In any case," Mavroe continued, "I'll have some people try to work out this case."

"What did the video contain?" Isbella asked.

"I thought it would be best to wait until you two got here." Mavroe reached took the tape that was lying on his desk and placed it into a tape player.

A week had passed, but Alex did hear that Daniel was not in trouble. Yusuke had told him to come Staynight Avenue, saying that he wanted to show him something. It was odd to be invited by a classmate he didn't really know well to some random place, but he had managed to catch a train to reach the place. There were many average-sized houses, but the one Alex had to go to was at a cul-de-sac. The address was 2211, which happened to be the tallest of the houses.

"Let's hope nothing happens here like at Daniel's," Alex sighed. Walking up to the doorsteps, he rang the doorbell. In just a few seconds, a girl with a pizza slice in her mouth opened the door, grabbed Alex's wrist, and dragged him inside. Alex tried several times to break free of her grip, and when he did, she just grabbed him again until he pulled her into a room where Yusuke was looking on a computer with a blonde boy looking over his shoulder.

"Hey, Yusuke!" the girl shouted much louder than necessary after gobbling down the last of her pizza slice. "Your friend is here."

Yusuke turned his chair to see a rather frustrated Alex.

"Ah, you're here," he said with a smile.

"Yeah," Alex snapped. "Care to tell me why I am?"

"This weirdo dragged me into this a week ago, and I thought it would be fun to drag you into this as well."

"And you chose me because...?"

"You're pretty weird, so I figured you could easily get along with these two. You know Derek, and this girl is Kekio."

"You're Japanese?" Alex asked the girl, but he realized that was a rather rash assumption just by the name, and the girl didn't look that much Japanese.

"Half, actually," the girl corrected, apparently not at all offended. "My dad's Japanese, and my mother's from the south. Her brother is Derek's father."

"Right," Alex answered. "So, what are we all supposed to be doing here?"

Derek turned from looking over Yusuke's shoulder and told Alex, "We're looking for the Digital World."

"Right," Alex repeated, pretending to understand. "And you think you'll be successful because...?"

The room was silent except for the sound of Yusuke's fingers hitting the keyboard unnecessarily hard. When he had finished, he moved away so that Alex could look at the screen.

"The Paradiso Group," Alex read out loud.

Yusuke nodded. "I had to look up several things regarding the Digital World, and this is the closest thing I could get. They apparently made some virtual reality system, but the beta testers died in it."

"Okay, so why are looking for this thing?"

Kekio grabbed Alex's shoulder and turned him towards her. "To find my brother."

Alex sighed. "Sorry, but it sounds like he's dead."

Yusuke shook his head. "I don't think so. This happened thirty years ago. Her brother only disappeared last week."

"You seem interested in this sort of thing," Alex pointed out.

"Look, I didn't want any part in this to begin with, but if we have a chance to save a lost kid, then we'll be doing a good thing."

"Are you sure you're just not trying to impress her?"

"I'm right here, you know," Kekio reminded them.

Yusuke shrugged "No, it just feels like the right thing to do."

For some reason, ring tones seem to be blaring everywhere. Yusuke, Alex, and Derek quickly pulled out their cell phones Kekio ran off to get the home phone. Strangely, all of them were hearing the exact same words from the exact same voice on their phones.

"To all of you who hear this message, there is something you may want to here. A contest is being held today, and the victors shall receive their greatest adventure yet."


	5. Undertaking

Alex sat back in a chair, trying to relax.

"So let me get this straight," he began. "Yusuke, you've agreed to help some random girl you don't even know to help find her brother."

"Yusuke nodded. "Yes."

"Isn't that, oh what's the word I'm looking for...retarded?"

"Hey!" Kekio shouted. "I needed help, and Yusuke is willing to help."

"I respect that," Alex defended, "but the fact that he doesn't even know you and that you're all convinced about some weird 'Digital World' is what bothers me. Really, Yusuke, I thought you were a rather normal guy."

"Alex, come with me," Yusuke asked. The two of them walked away from the room, trying to get some privacy. "Look, I know this girl from online."

Alex remarked, "Which of course is helpful in proving that you are as normal as I thought."

"Shut up. Anyway, she asked for my help. I for one personally don't believe in this stuff she's telling me, but I just can't turn a blind eye to this."

"She couldn't call the police?"

"She tried that. They're still investigating, but Kekio's convinced that they've given up."

"Have you even tried to tell her how much of a weirdo she is?"

"I can't do that, that would be rude."

"You're a nice guy. That could be trouble for you one day."

"Forget it, let's go back."

Alex and Yusuke made their way back to the room where Derek had found himself a bag of chips and Kekio was sitting down, tapping her fight. When she noticed that the two boys were back, she asked, "What were you two talking about."

"We were talking about how stu-" Alex tried to talk, but was elbowed in the chest by Yusuke, who seemed rather happy about it. "I take back what I said about you being a nice guy."

Yusuke kept his smile on as he spoke. "We were just trying to discuss what to do about this situation."

"In private?" Derek asked before taking a potato chip and eating it.

Alex, realizing that they were caught and that Yusuke would likely give him another hit to the gut if he let the cat out of the bag, decided to change the subject. "So, what about that mysterious phone call we got?"

Kekio caught Yusuke's sigh of relief and raised an eyebrow. "Don't try to change the subject."

"But Kekio," Derek said while he was stilling chewing on some chips, "Isn't it weird that the exact same person called us at the exact same time when we were at the exact same place?"

Kekio shrugged. "So?"

Alex's hand was promptly thrown at his forehead. "Come on, even I find that a bit odd, not to mention even more than you idiots."

Before anyone else could comment, their phones rang again. However, now they had all received a text message.

Alex read the message aloud. "'Have you thought long enough about the message? If so, press 'Accept''. You know, I'm kind of amazed that I didn't just delete the previous message."

"Should we do it?" Derek asked Kekio. The girl tried to think about it for a while. Alex and Yusuke were both surprised that she didn't just give her answer right away. It's like she was a completely different person after Alex and Yusuke had their own private conversation.

Kekio looked at all of them and smiled. "Sure, let's do it!" Just like that, Alex and Yusuke were convinced that she was unstable. Kekio pressed "Accept" on her phone, causing a hole that dragged in inside it, closing up right as soon as she had finished falling. Oddly, anything else that stood above the hole did not fall in.

"Kekio!" Derek screamed, pounding on the floor. For the three boys, all of their cell phones began to light up, and they were dragged into a hole large enough that it surrounded all three of them. They had no time to run, and fell down the hole instantly.

* * *

Omnimon stood in a room that consisted of nothing but millions of screens. Alongside him stood two knights. One of them was clad in bulky, blue armor with a helmet that seemed to be stuck in a permanent smile. The other was a thin man dressed in light armor, with wings and a large leopard mask. His blonde hair was as long and as tame as a lion's mane.

The one in the blue armor looked at the countless screens, amazed at all the people that were falling into black pits. "I must say, Omnimon, this is a bit wild."

Omnimon continued to monitor the many scenes, most of which faded to black once the people displayed had made their choice. As the black screens disappeared, more of the screens increased in size to adjust to the change in numbers. He watched a scene where a girl with brown hair was being taken away, her parents serving only to be witnesses that could not stop what was happening.

Omnimon prayed, "Lord Yggdrasil have mercy on her."

Omnimon did not give a look to either of the new individuals, but spoke anyway. "Agreed, Craniummon. To think that Lord Yggdrasil would actually approve of this."

The thin knight gave a light chuckle. "Isn't this the first time he's ever even had to change his mind about something? He's usually so quick to make judgment, and they are usually fitting. Maybe something's wrong with him?"

"Lord Yggdrasil is fine, Duftmon," Craniummon assured him. "Once the trials are over, we will be able to strike at the Demon Lords."

"That's fine and all, but why go to the trouble of getting millions of humans? I say we raid the Dark Area now!"

"That's awfully rash for the Royal Knights' leading strategist," Omnimon pointed out.

"You're right. Still, I'm kind of curious as to who we were able to even reach Earth."

"Heimdall is gathering the humans," Omnimon told him.

"You mean that old man?" Duftmon asked in surprise. Heimdall was a man that had existed before even Yggdrasil himself. "Still, why is he gathering young humans?"

"Their ties to the surreal are stronger than the average human adult," Omnimon explained. "As for why they're American, our world was created in that place."

Duftmon still wasn't out of questions. "That still doesn't explain how they'll be even able to survive. The Demon Lords could kill them without a second thought, and they wouldn't even be able to defend themselves."

Craniummon gave his comrade a wide-eyed grin. "That is why the trials have been established."

**Author's Notes: **And with that ends Part 1: Recruitment. Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2: Formation, coming soon!


	6. Reunions and Introductions

**Author's Notes: **It's been more than a year and a half since I last updated this story, and I left off on a cliffhanger. I have discontinued this story sometime last year, around the time of the premiere of Xros Wars. I am currently planning a revamp of this story, but before that happens, I want to upload as much of this story as I had written. I sincerely apologize for this incredibly long wait, and while I don't think the upcoming chapters will justify it, I want to at least show you the rest of this story.

* * *

Usually when you fall from impossible heights, you would be lying on the ground, most likely dead. If the drop wasn't that much, you would probably be getting back up. For Alex and the rest, that wasn't the case. As soon as they had fallen down the mysterious hole leading to who knew what, Alex and his "friends" simply opened their eyes and they were standing in a massive room with metal walls. It was probably as large as a museum, with walls that went on for quite a while. Everywhere they looked, they could only see children in their age group that seemed just as confused as they were. Then Alex realized that neither Yuusuke, Derek, nor Kekio were standing with him.

"Well, at least I lost them," Alex told himself scratching the back of his neck. "Still, what is this place?" There were many people that were talking to each other, and Alex tried to ask as many people as he could in case they knew anything. Some people seemed to be trying to ease the situation by talking about personal stuff, to make them forget something that shouldn't be so easily overlooked.

"SILENCE!" a voice boomed throughout the massive boom. The conversations had ended as soon as the deep voice began. Everyone turned to the front to see a man with a golden, horned helmet - similar to those that the Vikings wore - and a dressed in a flowing, green robe that seemed to have branches running down the middle. His beard flowed just to his waist, caught up in many of the branches.

The man that had just roared with energy was now reduced to coughing violently. "This world is getting too old for me to keep staying," he muttered under his breath. When he spoke, his voice echoed around the room, which helped deliver his weakening voice.

"Children of the Earth, I apologize for taking you from your homes without forewarning, but please, my people in dire need of your assistance. Make no mistake, this is certainly a dangerous task I am asking of you, but-"

A storm of angry teenagers came running towards the old man. Without hesitation, he reached into his left sleeve and took out a golden staff. His robes turned a dark red color, the branches on his outfit turning to flames that for whatever reason didn't scorch his beard.

"Please, allow me to finish," he requested. The people that were suddenly rampaging ran off, muttering curses. The man shook his head before he continued. "You are all clearly unprepared for this. It seems the trials will be good." People began to whisper at the mention of the word "trails". "No, there is nothing to worry about. The trials are simply to measure which of you will be worthy to handle this task. Those of you that fail will be returned home and you memories will be wiped, and so will those that witnessed your...disappearance. Those of you that succeed will be taken on an adventure where you will be place in a life-or-death situation."

"Life-or-death!" a voice shouted in a thick German accent. "Some of us don't want to die! Just let us all go and deal with this yourself." Yuusuke was standing next the person that had spoken. A boy with wild black hair, pale skin, and black clothes, including a coat.

Many voices joined in unison, agreeing with the voice and shouting angrily.

Yuusuke chuckled. "You sure caused up a ruckus, Quint. That's not like you."

"I just spoke my mind, that's all."

The old man raised his staff, which silenced the crowd yet again. However, there was smile on his face. "A wise boy you are. For years, the my people have tried our best to maintain this situation. We believe that you humans may give us the power we need. In order to verify that belief, we have established a set of 'trials' that you must each complete. We suspect that ultimately only a select few of you will pass these trials, but we will just have to deal with that."

Suddenly, six tunnels in the wall began to open. What appeared to be the back of trains appeared.

"Now then, choose your ride."

Alex was sitting on his desk, looking outside the train that kept speeding along the tunnel, but there was only blackness. The other passengers had been blathering to each other about so many things that only the loudest of the bunch were able to catch his attention. The bench Alex was resting his knees on bumped, and Alex could tell that someone had sat down.

"This is so crazy," the person had said. Alex turned to see who it was, and he recognized it as the girl from the bus stop a week ago.

Alex tried to think of how to make conversation. He simply said, "Hey, you're that girl."

The girl looked up, recognizing Alex. "Oh yeah, I remember you. I don't believe you told me your name."

"Alex," he said, sitting down his seat. "And what's yours?"

She told him, "My name is Hana."

"So, Hana, do you have any idea what's going on here?"

"You think anyone here would?

"Well, no. I just wanted to have a conversation."

"You probably shouldn't. If we don't pass these trials, then our memories will be wiped and you and I will forget any conversation we have."

"That's a pretty negative way to look at this."

Hana looked down at her feet. "I'm sorry. I'm just trying to look at this from a logical point of view."

"Forget logic for now. What we're doing right now hardly makes any sense, and I don't think we can do anything about that, so let's just get this over with."

Yuusuke stood outside of the train he had chosen to ride on, watching the tracks speed away from him. "So how's your summer going, Quint?"

"Ja, it's going good. What have you been doing so far?"

"Well, I've been stuck with two weird kids and Alex."

"Alex doesn't count as a weird kid anymore?"

"Good point. The thing is, I was wondering if he would help me with these two people I got involved with, looking for something called the Digital World."

"The Digital World, huh? Sounds interesting, but why call Alex."

"He and I talk sometimes at school, and he seemed like someone I could trust with this weird stuff."

"But he's not your friend, right? I sure can't stand him, especially since he's been calling be a Nazi ever since I started going to school. Talk about stereotyping. Anyway, this Digital World you mentioned. Think it's got something to do with this?"

"That's a strange idea, but it wouldn't surprise me. Still, I looked it up, and I got the impression that the Digital World was shut down."

"You looked it up? What kind of place did you go to?"

"Wikipedia, obviously."

Quint's hand promptly met his forehead. "Go on."

"Apparently some group called Paradiso started a Digital World project, so I thought that it might be connected."

"So who are these two 'strange people' anyway?"

"This girl named Kekio and her cousin Derek."

"Oh, it's a girl, huh? Is she cute? That would explain why you would work with her."

"Shut up. I'm only doing this because she asked me to."

"Online? Wow, I'm keeping an eye on you and this girl."

"It's not like that. Our moms are friends, and they introduced us."

"Oh. That's it? And here I was praising you like you were some smooth actor. Guess I was mistaken."

"Our train's going to stop soon, we should probably head back in."

"What makes you think it's going to stop? Are you just trying to change the subject?"

"I thought I told you to shut up."

Derek had this misfortune of not being able to find anyone he was familiar. Just how many people were there here if he couldn't recognize a single person? Coupled that with the fact that everyone was running around like idiots, sometimes stepping on his feet. He was about to stand up and shout at everyone to stop, but he was stopped when he noticed that the young man sitting next to him was giving him a cold stare. He seemed to be about Derek's age, dressed in a black shirt with blue pants. His black and red zigzag streak in the middle of it, and odd look in Derek's opinion. It was like he was trying to dress up as a character from some typical Japanese comic book. The boy recognized that Derek was staring at his hair specifically and just sighed.

"Just...sit down. If you're going to yell at them, they'll either ignore you or beat you to a pulp."

"Hey, why are you trying to act all high and mighty?"

"I'm just trying to be reasonable, unlike the idiots I see here, not including you of course."

Derek brushed off the boy's comment, but sat down nonetheless. "I'm Derek Namio."

The boy stared at Derek for a few seconds. "Lance Summers. I'm not sure that our names are important anyway, since they'll probably just take our memories if we fail. Listen, kid."

"Don't call me 'kid' when you're probably the same age as me."

"You're sixteen?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. Kid," Derek obviously didn't like that. "I'm really not good with people I don't know, so just don't bother me. If somehow we get stuck on the same team, then I'll probably take you seriously."

Daniel's head was starting to hurt. "It's going to happen again. I'm going to black out, and them I'm probably going to find out that I've passed the trials." Daniel felt like he was about to throw up, and grabbed the railing near his seat, until a voice spoke to him."

"Don't get sick now." He looked up to see a girl with a white blouse, a black skirt, and brown hair. "My name's Sheena Greyan. Good luck with the trials." The girl's sweet smile made Daniel cheer up enough to forget about how sick he was feeling.

"Thanks, I hope you win too."

Unfortunately for Kekio, she spent her entire time on the train alone.


	7. The Trials Begin

Alex and Hana heard that their train stopped. Many people started to bolt to the doors as fast as they could, as they were all eager to begin their trial. Once everyone else had filed out, Hana rushed to the door.

"Ladies first," she teased. Alex ignored her and went out the door. Most, if not all of the passengers, were now looking at the front of the train.

"What, you've never seen a Trailmon before?" a voice asked. Alex and Hana saw that at the front of their copper train was a pair of golden eyes and sharp teeth. "Eh, I guess it's because you're all humans. Well, just go along and begin your trials."

They all turned away from the strange talking train and went forward. A railing stood at the edge of a pit, a silver sword placed in a stone in the middle of the pit. A single stairway led to the sword, though even that was inaccessible; unless one climbed over the rather short railings. A projection of Heimdall visualized before the sword.

"In this task, we decided that we needed something to replicate something you humans would be familiar with. While this trial does not necessarily confirm your status as the leader of the group, it is still worthwhile to test. Only the strongest will be able to succeed here."

A railing leading to the stairway sank into the ground. One boy walked down and attempted to pull the sword free. He pulled and pushed, but the sword did not budge at all. Heimdall shook his head and said, "Failure." With a swing of his staff, the boy was struck with a stream of energy. His body structure was covered in a grid before shattering into data in an instant.

"Hey, what did you do!" many shouted at Heimdall. Others panicked, often commenting on how this felt like a horror movie come to life. The reactions varied in countless ways, but all of them were deeply afraid of the situation, afraid of what they felt was their inevitable death.

"Relax," he told them all with a raised palm. "I simply returned him to the human world the moment before he was taken from there, and his memories from his journey here have been erased. It is as if he was never here. All of you shall receive the same treatment if you fail this trial."

"To hell with that!" another boy yelled. "Let's charge him and take the sword!"

Alex's hand met his face when he realized that they would inevitably fail at their attempt to rush this man who had already displayed such awesome power. It was just stupid. Heimdall seemed to have the exact same idea and sent them away immediately.

"It is impatience such as that that would cause your downfall, if you had even succeeded in this task." He gave a wrinkly smile, "Shall we continue?"

Many of them tried their best to take the sword, but Heimdall repeatedly said "Failure" before sending them away. It got boring to watch, but ultimately it was Alex's turn to go.

Hana wished Alex, "Good luck." Alex waved in thanks and looked around at how many people were left. There were maybe twenty other people left. He could hardly imagine that compared to how many people there were left, there were even more people at the beginning of the trial. Just how many children had these people - if that was even the right term to use - taken? He shuddered to think about that, though it was rather worrying that he'd be like a hired worker for these mysterious people. He grabbed the sword and tried to pull.

Heimdall sighed. "Please, boy, at least try to make this a little different than the rest."

Alex struggled to pull on the sword just like the other people had done. He tried to pull it as hard as he could, but it still wouldn't move.

Heimdall raised his hand. "To think we need you as a last resort. If this is the best you can do, then-"

"Wait!"

Heimdall turned. Hana was leaning over the railing. Heimdall had his staff ready to send Alex back, but chose to listen to Hana. "Well, someone's finally going to speak up? And I here I thought you were all just going to stay quiet. Why speak now?"

"If I could, would you allow me to help him take the sword?"

Heimdall raised his eyebrow. "What makes you think that I would allow something like that?

"Everyone's been trying to take the sword for themselves, but no one's been trying to work together. Could you make this one exception and let us work together to take the sword."

"You sound like you've had that idea for a while. Why wait till now to use it?" Hana tried to away in slight embarassment, but Heimdall gave a joyful chuckle. "Don't be shy! I'll let you try this, since you're the only one so far that's actually tried that."

Hana ran down to the stairway and stood by Alex's side. She place her hands over Alex's and blushed a little. Alex tried to hide his face to escape the embarrassment.

"On the count of three." Hana told him. "1, 2, 3!"

The sword at long last managed to be removed from the stone. Hana and Alex looked all around the room. Other than Heimdall, they were the only people left in the room.

Heimdall smiled, "You've passed the trial."

Alex took the sword from Hana, which annoyed the girl a little bit. It suddenly changed color, turning from silver to blood red with black trimming. In Hana's hand her own sword appeared, black with yellow trimming. The two teenagers admired their weapons, until Alex realized something.

"There were others that should have been after us. What happened to them?"

"I sent them away," Heimdall answered. "We need as small of a group as possible, and for that reason we've limited the maximum of champions of each Trial to two. Since you two were the first to pass this Trial due to figuring out how to succeed, you have been chosen as members of the team."

Hana was curious. "Why only two per Trial?"

"All in due time, child. This trial tested 'unity'. While it is possible that your future comrades can keep together, we had to ensure that there were those that could assure the unity within the team. Girl, you realized that the key to success was not to release the sword, but to work together in order to do so. That idea of collective work is what will help you complete your mission."

* * *

Derek was a little lost, and in a forest no less. The strange man, Heimdall, had told him and the others that had boarded the strange "Trailmon" that in their trial, they had to either "kill" or "capture" strange monsters. To succeeded in that task, everyone was given a spear with a net attached to the end opposite the tip. He had tried to remember just how many he had taken care of. Was it 10 captured, 3 killed? He couldn't remember, but it was much easier for him to capture monsters. The net was large, which had caused him to stumble a few times, but he managed to capture a lot of monsters with a careful swing. The tip of the spear was long and sharp, sufficient in slaying some monsters, but for some reason he just couldn't find his mark. He was proficient at kendo, a Japanese form of sword-fighting, so he felt ashamed at being so weak.

Another monster lunged at him. It was blue in color, somewhat reptilian in build, and had blank eyes. Derek acted on impulse, thrusting the sharp edge of his weapon at his attacker. Unfortunately, just before the attack could connect, a net flew upward, capturing the monster. As soon as it's head was inside the net, it vanished it a faint light. Derek looked up to see that the boy he had met on the train, Lance.

"Sorry about that," Lance muttered apologetically. Without another word, he jumped across to another tree.

Derek pouted. "Jerk, he stole my game." He looked around him, trying to find his way. He saw a path and took it.

Derek found himself next to a waterfall. The water rushed down at an alarming rate, and the height of the fall would be fatal.

"I wonder if this would be a good rope," Derek asked himself, stretching the net on his weapon. He tried to gain a good understanding of his surroundings and saw a branch that just barely stretch out over the edge. "I guess it's worth a try."

After a successful tree climb, he had managed to just stretch his arm far enough to reach the net over the branch. Before he could prepare himself, the branch snapped, sending Derek plummeting down the side of the waterfall. He tried to burry the spear in the side of his wall in an effort to break his fall, only for it to break on impact. He though he was doomed, but he remembered that he'd be sent home and not die. At least, that was assuming that Heimdall would keep his promise.

And yet he survived. His feet hit the ground, and there was only a little jolt of pain that ran through his legs.

"Heh, I must be some special kind of guy!" he joked. "I know I'm going to pass this trial with this luck!" The blade of his spear had managed to repair itself somehow. This world was strange, but interesting. "That's convenient!"

More monsters made themselves known. Derek grinned and took a swing with his blade, skewering more monsters. "Yeah, everything is in the bag."

His ploy had worked. He just had to approach them with intimidation in his eyes, and they ran like lambs to the slaughter. It was sad that Lance was able to so quickly discern the path they would take. He took chase, and buried his spear into the back of the blue monster. Another monster found an opening from the right, but with a slight turn of his wrists, the net sprung up, capturing another monster.

"That makes 20-20 if I recall correctly."

In the distance he could see a small tower. He coiled the net around the rest of his weapon, satisfied with his score. He ran off as fast as he could towards the end point.

* * *

Though it was only the second Trial, Heimdall was already bored. He was dressed in a brown robe with green designs all over his outfit. "Nine thousand and one bottles of beer on the wall, nine thousand and one bottles of beer...Ah, here's someone." His gaze changed from left to in front of him, as he saw to boys approaching him.

Derek proudly plunged his weapon into the ground and rested his right hand on top of the rim of the net. Lance simply shook his head and asked, "No one else?"

Heimdall shook his head. "Just you two. I can sense the presence of those in this place, and the others have either been returned to their world or have run themselves into a corner. It's impossible, no one else could have won but you two."

Though Lance turned in disappointment with the realization of his new partner, Derek raised his fist and boldly declared, "Alright, that was a fun game!"

"'Game'?" Heimdall repeated. "This is not a game. The Trials are...never mind, I shall inform you of the true nature of this so that you can better understand. This was but the second trial, therefore we will have to wait for the last three to be completed."

"Ah, we have to wait?" Derek moaned. Heimdall rolled his eyes, and with a snap of his fingers, a plate of pizza materialized into one of Derek's hands, with a can of soda in the other.

Heimdall turned to Lance. "Anything you need to hold you over?"

"No, I'm good."

* * *

Daniel was rather intimidated by his own fear. Heimdall had declared that for his Trial, everyone had to make their way to the center of a labyrinth. For whatever reason, he had said that only the first two people to make it to the end would succeed. Daniel would gladly give up if it meant that he could go home, but then he thought about Alex. Alex was a good friend, and he didn't want to let one of his few, if only friend get killed. The girl, Sheena, tried to calm everyone down and tell them to pretend it was a game. Heimdall was rather annoyed by her suggestion to "play around", as if this was a truly serious matter.

Heimdall said that there were monsters scattered throughout the labyrinth, and that everyone had to be smart against them, or else they would be sent home. He tried to make that sound threatening, but most people had no problem with being sent home rather than spending their quality time with some strange old man.

"There are weapons to be found in this maze, which shall be useful in reaching the center and combatting the monsters that you may encounter. Now then, let us begin!"

Everyone was teleported to a different place. The entire area was like a dark forest, littered with leaves, scraps, and trees. A ten foot gray wall blocked off each person from one another, and it turned it branched all around them. The children were all pulled forward to the starting positions, boxed in by the wall and a red barrier in front of them.

Daniel tried to wave his arm through the red barrier, as it was transparent enough to simply be aesthetic. It wasn't until it turned green that he could pass through it, and he took it as a clue that the race had begun. He took slow steps, but he could hear the bustling of the leaves all around and the taps of feet hitting the ground. Just about everyone was running, but Daniel simply walked.

"I'mma get there first," Daniel muttered to himself. "Now where were them weapons that old fart said?" He looked around, but he couldn't find a thing. He heard the sound of bullets firing and the screams of boys. He couldn't see what caused the sound, but it didn't matter to him.

* * *

It felt like an hour or so had passed, but Sheena had some luck. She had been wandering around in the labyrinth for a while, but she managed to find a spear lying on the ground. The spear was broken in half, and the tip looked rather dull. It was a weapon at least, although it probably wouldn't kill the monsters that might attack her.

She heard a roar and turned to see a giant monster. It was giant brown creature with the head of a bull, a large golden ring in its snout, long brown hair flowing just past its neck, a zipper running down its chest, an stitches on its head and right arm. For some reason, it was wearing boots, and it's left hand was a giant revolver. The first thing she thought of was a minotaur. Sheena ran straight ahead into another path. The minotaur fired balls of yellow energy, though they made sounds like bullets. It blew of the corners of the path Sheena had just taken, and she was stuck going down a straight path that didn't seem to split or turn for a while.

"Don't trip, don't trip," she repeated to herself. She heard a crashing sound behind her, and though she didn't want to, she reflexively turned around to see what was happening. The minotaur was on its knees, trying to grab a boy that was stabbing daggers into its head. Sheena noticed that the boy hardly had any skin or blood covering the right side of his face. It was practically skeletal, and it terrified her even more than the minotaur. Despite his face, he had long, raven-dark hair with red and white streaks that made just past his shoulders. He was wearing a white leather jacket, a black shirt, and a pair of black jeans. She couldn't stand there in horror, she had to run as fast as she could. Her knees were trembling, but she hurried on regardless. Thankfully, she had just managed to find a left turn, and took it.

* * *

Heimdall had a look a shock on his face. "Someone actually managed to kill a Minotarumon! This person, I recognize the presence somehow, but from where? If he could take down a Minotarumon so easily, should I allow him to pass this Trial? This power...it could be useful. The others have either been eliminated and sent home or they are still just out there." Heimdall took a breath as he thought of what to do. "This Trial is indeed a test of strength, but it is also one of strategy. I'll grant him success regardless."

"That just won't do." Heimdall turned to face Duftmon.

"I granted the Royal Knights permission to oversee this if they desired, but I didn't expect you."

"Come on, you're testing strategy. I would have let you handle this on your own, but if you're going to let some maniac be part of the team just because he killed a weak replica of an Ultimate-level Digimon, then you're going about it all wrong."

"And putting them up against something stronger would have been suitable, such as a real Minotarumon?"

"No, I do admit that these kids need something easy to warm them in to the situation. Mind if I take over?"

"This is more suited for your talents, so be my guest."

"Awesome." With a smile, Duftmon took lift into the air. "Human children, the center is here if you haven't figured it out yet! Heimdall has given me, Duftmon, command of this Trial, so you better not disappoint me!"

"How awfully careless of you, Duftmon. Your reputation as the leading strategist of the Royal Knights has been slipping little by little recently."

"I haven't been given the chance or motivation to come up with some good plans recently. I feel like my talent's been wasted, to be honest."

"Remember, I want that boy in the team. The other person can be your choosing." With his parting words, Heimdall faded away.

* * *

Sheena tried her best to forget about what she had just seen, but she couldn't. That strange creature that called himself Duftmon had given her hope that she could reach the end, but she didn't want to run into that crazy boy and become his next victim.

She had walked around in a circle, as she found herself standing behind the minotaur that tried to kill her before. There didn't seem to be any blood dripping, nor was there any that was dry on it. She noticed that it could double as steps of some sort to get on top of the wall, so she reluctantly climbed onto the body of the beast. When she stood atop the head, she had to make her way around the horns. She knew she couldn't make the jump with the spear she was carrying, so she tossed it aside. She jumped as far as she could just, barely catching the top of the wall with her right hand. She threw her left hand onto the wall and pulled herself onto the wall. It wasn't really wide, so her arms and legs hanged over the sides. She adjusted herself so she would crawl along the wall. She looked up to see Duftmon, but charged forward. He seemed to be coming in her direction until he swung a rapier down, cutting the Minotarumon in half.

"That's a pretty good plan you got there, girl. You took advantage of what someone else left you with, and you were the first to take that opportunity. You were going to crawl all along this wall just to get to the end."

Sheena nodded. "Yes."

"Just for that, I'm going to be a nice guy and let you pass."

Sheena was still scared with the thought that he could have killed her, and to hear that she had passed didn't make her too much happier other than the fact that she wasn't dead.

"I-I passed?" she asked as a tear rolled down her eye. Her fright had just broken her, and Duftmon noticed. He wiped the tear from her eye and grinned.

"Yep. I'll take you to your companions soon." He extended his hand. "Don't worry, I won't drop you."

She grabbed his hand with both of hers, and he flew off back to the center of the labyrinth.

_So, Heimdall,_ Duftmon thought. _You got any plans up your sleeve?_


	8. Endless Adversaries

Yusuke was curious. "How are we supposed to win?"

"Zweihänder." Quint answered flatly with his German accent, gesturing with a nod at the long sword that he was holding in both of his hands.

"Yes, and? I have a handgun, but you got a giant sword."

"Well, I suppose we could-"

A large, pointed appendage came in from the left and just barely missed Quint. Earlier, Heimdall refused to tell them about what they were supposed to do other than "Ten minutes. Good luck." When he had vanished, a large mass with red scales had suddenly appeared in his place. Yusuke and Quint had sought out an alley to hide in. The were in the city, and it was nighttime. Many of the kids felt homesick judging by the incessant pleas, but everyone had already either scattered or been eliminated by the monster.

Quint took a swing with his sword, trying to sever the appendage, but to no avail. The blade was stuck, and more scales formed over the weapon.

Yusuke tried to shoot with his gun, but the bullet was became stuck inside the scales as well.

Yusuke put away his gun. "We could run."

Both of them ran in opposite directions, both to their right. The tentacle they had just tried to outrun split itself in two, turning around and slithering after both boys.

"I think it's gotten slower." Quint told Yusuke.

"That makes sense. If it was faster, we'd be dead by now. Maybe it's because there's two of them now?"

"Sacrificed speed for number?"

"Most likely."

Yusuke turned a corner, only for the tentacle to draw slowly towards him. He would see other people trying to run from the same thing. Up in the sky, Yusuke saw numbers materialize. "4:22", it said. Each second, it decreased. It wasn't hard to realize that it was a timer. It hadn't been too long since this Trial had begun, perhaps that was what Heimdall meant by ten minutes? A series of circles surrounded the numbers, only for several of them to vanish at a time.

The tentacle lunged forward, Yusuke was distracted for too long. He had to run, but to no avail. A tentacle caught him, tightening its grip on him. He heard a scream, then a sound of impact. The tentacle's grip loosened on Yusuke, and slowly fell to the ground. There Quint stood, having delivered a swift attacked with his sword.

"Thanks," Yusuke told him.

"No problem. Let's see if we can find a place to hide, fast."

The place where Quint had cut began to bubble. Now even more tentacles formed, and swarmed at them. Yusuke emptied several of the rounds of his gun on the tentacles, which now seemed even weaker than before. He turn to run, not daring to stray far from Quint. He kept looking behind him to see if the tentacles were getting closer, and fired when they did.

"How much longer?"

Quint quickly looked up at the sky. "About three minutes left."

"Are you kidding me?"

Yusuke turned to fire more rounds, but something strange was happening. The tentacles began to retreat.

"Why are they leaving?"

"Going back to the source?" Quint guessed.

"Check it out?"

"I don't know. We should make a run for it."

They did. Yusuke exchanged glances between the sky and the road ahead of him. Their run had taken them to a dead end, where only a flat way laid in front of them. To their left and to their right, there were buildings with ladders placed on them.

"Too easy." Yusuke decided.

"Don't care, let's just take it."

"I'll take the right, you take the left?"

"Sure.

Their climb took them a while to reach the top. Yusuke collapsed onto the ground, tired from all the running.

"Hey, don't tell me you're tired already!" Quint teased from across the buildings.

"I know, but I think we should rest. Those tentacles must have stopped for a reason." He looked back up at the sky again. "Besides, that timer has only a minute and a half left."

"And there's only six of those dots."

"Maybe the people still in this?"

"I guess. Hey, why don't we see if we can rush it. You know, go out in an awesome way?"

Yusuke sat up, trying to think about it.

"It'll take us a while to get there. How are we supposed to even get across these buildings?"

"We can jump."

"You sure you can do that with that big sword?"

"Good point."

Before they could agree on a plan, a mass of red scales shot up in the distance, towering as far as the eyes could see. Six, large pointed tentacles lunged in different directions. Yusuke and Quint leaped away just before they were about to be hit. Quint took a swing with his sword, only for the blade to shatter almost immediately upon impact. Yusuke fired some of his bullets, only for them to reflect right off. They tentacles nearly tripled in mass and lifted up, just about ready to crush the two boys. They tried to run, but there was nowhere to go. The walls around them where demolished, turning into dust almost instantly.

And once again they had somehow survived. The tentacles began to melt, but the buildings began to sink into the ground. As the red liquid that was once a solid chaser began to evaporate, the places where Yusuke and Quint stood began to draw closer. The entire place around them began to become more compact. It was only when they boys looked up did they notice that the timer had reach zero, and only two dots remained.

Heimdall, dressed in a regal robe of red, gold, and white, materialized in thin air and gave applause.

"So, you two are the most determined and skilled of all the people in this Trial. You are survivors. For that, I shall allow you victory. Now only one Trial remains. Tell me, boys, what did you think of this."

Yusuke stammered, "Um, it was-"

"Awesome, but easy." Quint interrupted.

Heimdall smiled. "Interesting answer."

* * *

Kekio took a step out of the train as everyone else had already filed out. Everyone had gathered on together, and it didn't seem like there was as many people as she expected. Thirty, forty, she couldn't figure it out. Whatever the case, she had to win whatever this was. She had the chance to get into the Digital World, and she couldn't fail. She had to find her little brother, get him from wherever she was. She tried to shun the thoughts that her brother had run into some misfortune, but she had to be confident. Her brother couldn't be dead, he just couldn't. She had to find him, bring him back home. That was her duty as an older sister, she reminded herself.

Everyone had already run off, but Kekio was lagging behind. These people, do any of them have any personal issues? Have they lost any family?

"Young girl," a deep voice behind her echoed. She turned around, just now noticing the face on the black train she rode in on. "I feel that something troubles you. Do not let your grief trouble you. Understand why you feel grief, and persevere."

Kekio was speechless. She wanted to say thanks, but to see a train talk to her was, well, odd.

"Oh, forgive me. I am a Trailmon, employed by Heimdall, the man you met earlier. I was to escort you all to this Trial. I feel guilty for giving you a potential advantage, but perhaps that may be for the best."

"Um, thank you," Kekio answered, bowing in respect. She turned back and ran off to catch up with the rest.

As the Trailmon went in reverse, he had one thought in mind that it couldn't help but say to itself. "Heimdall, did you plan this? The wheels of fate spin around me. Those who ride me, their fate may be determined there. I am a harbinger of destiny, and I believe that out of everyone, that girl's future has already been decided. I pray that it is not one of despair."

Everyone was walking through a hall. The mirrors, distorting everyone's reflections, gave off a sense of a funhouse. The path became more narrow, and more and more people began to run, eager to find the end. More people turn around out of boredom, hoping to get out. Kekio had her motivation, to save her brother. In a matter of time, everyone saw a lone figure standing before a tall door, Heimdall.

"Welcome children," Heimdall smiled with opened arms. "You are the last group in these Trials, so we have no time to waste."

"Hey mister," Kekio asked with a raised hand. "Just why exactly do you need people like us?"

"If you win this Trial, I will tell you."

"But, my brother's in the Digital World! I have to save him!"

Heimdall stood indifferent. "Then you have no choice but to succeed."

Turning his back to the others, Heimdall commanded the doors to open. In front of him stood what looked like a large storage room, filled with shelves, piles or boxes, and miscellaneous weapons scattered across the floor. Walls of red energy stood at a few sides of the room. Heimdall went in with the others following her, repelling the littered blades and guns as he turned to the others.

"This is a test of choice. You must learn to make careful decisions, calculating what will allow you to succeed. To demonstrate, I will need...oh, I'd say five volunteers." Countless hands raised up immediately. "Impressive, quite an organized group. Better the just about all of the others." Walking around the group, he tapped five teenagers of the head, including Kekio, who hadn't raised her hand. "I want to see your motivation," he whispered.

They each scattered out, grabbing weapons knives, rapiers, guns, hammers, or axes. Kekio had taken a single rapier. It was silver, and she felt happy. "I'll show you!"

Examing Kekio's weapon, Heimdall couldn't help but chuckle. "Then good luck. The five of you, stand before the red gates."

They did. Spinning his staff in a small circle, the gates turned green. Kekio ran through her gate, but stopped cold when she her several snickers. They didn't sound normal, and it worried her. She turned back, and the gate was still green. At least she could turn back, but why now? The area was light, so she could see clearly. Two other girls, two boys, she remembered going out. Ahead of her she could see a large number of what like ghosts. There faces were stuck in wide, likely evil grins and large black eyes. They're bodies looked like small, white masses with hands outstretched.

"Those are Bakemon," Heimdall announced behind the barrier. "Your weapons should be able to defeat some of them."

"'Some'?" Kekio repeated to herself. Regardless, she darted forward, slashing, parrying, and stabbing the ghosts. Many of them vanished by the attack, but for a lot of them the attack simply phased through them. "What the?"

Kekio could hear the sound of gunshots, swords striking, and simple pops. The others must have been doing a good job so far, but Kekio needed to keep her distance. She turned back to the barrier, having decided that she had demonstrated enough. Might as well let the other people begin the Trial too. Heimdall did mention that he wanted a hurry. As the Bakemon gathered around her, she pushed them away and made her way back to the barrier.

"Done already?" Heimdall teased.

"You said you were in a hurry, right?"

"Be that as it may, you shouldn't run from fights unless necessary."

The clamor of the rest sparked, demanding the Trial to finally begin.

"You young people are just so impatient. Very well." With a wave of his hand, the other four demonstrators returned. "All of you, choose your weapons. Carefully this time."

In a frenzy, everyone began pushing each other out of the way, grabbing weapons instantly. Kekio tossed aside her weapon however, and the others filed out before her, leaving only her and Heimdall.

"Well? Choose."

"That sword didn't work. I need something that works on all of them."

"All of them? You're better off choosing what will take down at least half of them."

Looking around, Kekio made a random decision. "How about that one?" she asked, pointy at a rusty sword.

"What good will that do? If that rapier didn't work, what makes you think that will?"

"I don't know, but I want to try it. You're strange, those monsters are strange. Maybe a girl like me taking down ghosts with a rusty sword will seem normal." She added a chuckle as she finished, taking her weapon. Without waiting, she took the blade and ran out.

An hour or two must have passed by now. Just like she boasted, Kekio's rusty sword actually managed to work. Other people were still fighting, and with other people's help and her dodging skills, Kekio somehow had managed to survive. The ghosts still kept coming, but there were still a few people left. The barriers had turned red, and it was clear that only the winners left could go through.

At wit's end, Kekio had only one choice. Maybe convince the Bakemon? It was worth of shot, maybe. Tossing aside her sword, she rested her hands at her side.

"Please," she begged, not making any attempt to fight off the Bakemon. "I just want to save my brother. He's gone, so I want to win this. Just let me pass!"

The Bakemon all exchanged glances and made odd sounds amongst themselves. With a nod, they floated away from Kekio, swarming everyone else. Countless flashes and warping sounds were made. Kekio stood watching, astounded that her plan worked. After a while, the barrier turned green again. Making her way back to the starting area, the only person left was Heimdall.

"I honestly can't believe that worked," Heimdall muttered. "And you're the only one to survive a Trial alone. We really should improve upon these Trials."

"Just tell me what I have to do to see my brother again."

"I'm sorry, but even I wouldn't know. But come with me. The Trials have ended, and you must meet your teammates."

"Teammates?"

"Of course. An intriguing bunch, to say the least."


	9. Preparations

Duftmon sat in a throne, looking at the eight teenagers around him sitting on the floor. Two boys, Yusuke and Quint, just came in, and it seemed they were giving their regards to the boy Alex. He shut his eyes, waiting for Heimdall to show up.

Daniel was being questioned by Sheena. "Wait, you mean you took down that maniac with the skull face?"

Daniel stuttered. "Y-yes. I don't know how, but he just came blindly charging at me. I took a dagger from him, and took him out, then I took his other dagger. So now I'm here."

Alex was skeptical of Daniel's claim. "You sure you did this, Danny? You're not one to fight, you should know that."

"I know, but I remember it clearly."

"But I saw him!" Sheena argued. "He was crazy! A monster...stabbed that minotaur."

"A darn shame, too," Duftmon muttered. "I thought he'd be great for the team, but a wimp like you dispatched him."

"Hey, he's not a wimp!" Alex snapped.

"But didn't you just say he's not one to fight?"

Alex frowned. The knight had a point.

"Did he at least say anything else?" Sheena asked.

Daniel paused to think. "I think he said that I had to be careful. He said he found some way about that Heimdall guy's system, then he just vanished."

"Please, the old fart's system is flawless, albeit pretty lousy I must admit. Not challenging enough, and the strategies you people are asked to employ are fourth-rate. That's pretty bad, by the way."

"Still, I think we should-"

"Enough, Sheena." Lance stepped in, and Sheena became quiet. "Let's just wait for the others and stay put."

The doors burst open, and through them stood Heimdall and a girl.

"Kekio!" Derek cheered. He ran up to his cousin and gave her a hug, Yusuke and Alex behind him.

"Well, I guess you managed to make it through," Yusuke said.

Alex nodded. "So, I suppose you'll be able to find your brother, right?"

"That's right," Kekio smiled. She counted the people in attendance and turned to Heimdall. "There's only nine people."

Heimdall ran a wrinkled finger through his beard. "It should be enough. Now, Duftmon, would you kindly remove yourself from my seat?"

"Eh, sorry," the knight moaned as he rose. "I was waiting for you to get here, and I had to keep these kids under control, right?"

"So what are we supposed to do?" Hana asked.

"Simple. The nine of you must defeat the Seven Demon Lords."

Just about everyone was confused, but Quint and Derek rose their fists in the air, apparently enthusiastic about what they were just told, which earned them a slap on the back of the head by Duftmon.

"Be serious," the Royal Knight started. "The seven of them are pretty tough. One of our number was killed against them, and both of them are stronger than me, sadly."

"No matter," Heimdall waved. "We can avenge him and defeat the Demon Lords, even if Yggdrasil is too stubborn to accept that."

"Then why don't you do that?" Lance asked.

"The Digital World's god, Yggdrasil, believes that a direct war against the Demon Lords by the Royal Knights would cause an imbalance between good and evil, even though the Demon Lords are quite dangerous to begin with. A few of our number managed to convince him that an intervention on your part would help manage to keep that balance, but he demanded a small team for that purpose. The Trials were used to weed out the ones that would best succeed at the task, and so you nine were chosen. That, and many of the Digimon would love to meet humans such as you."

Daniel raised a hand. "You said your god's name was Yggdrasil, right? There are some humans who believed in something by that name, called the World Tree."

"That makes sense, I suppose. But regardless, I trust you know your objectives?"

Duftmon interrupted. "What about the X Digimon?"

"I believe that was under your jurisdiction, young strategist." Duftmon stood back, insulted. "Now then, there is just one last thing. You will be given your aid for this task: weapons and Digimon partners."

"Wait, you haven't even really explained what a Digimon is," Hana pointed out.

"Digimon means digital monsters. We go by Digimon simply because it is simpler to say. Our history goes way back, but all you must know is that the Demon Lords have begun a rise in their aggression and must be stopped soon."

The throne began to flatten itself against the way as Heimdall's staff reformatted itself into a key shaped sword with a brown cloth wrapped around the blade. Heimdall inserted the key into the picture that was the throne and turned it, unlocking a door. Inside was a shelf with seven devices in an almost flattened egg shape.

"What are these?" Kekio asked, examining the the devices.

"I think I know," Hana answered. She showed to them a black device of a similar design with yellow stripes along the left and right sides.

"Exactly," Heimdall nodded. "Digital devices, or Digivices. These will be your tools, and can assume the form of a weapon of your choice. If the two of you would please demonstrate. Simply wish for your Digivices to assume their weapon forms."

Alex brought out a red device with black half-circles on the top and bottom. He and Hana simultaneously raised their Digivices, which were illuminated in red and yellow lights respectively. The lights surrounded the Digivices until they morphed into long, slender blades. Alex planted his sword into the ground as Hana held hers over her shoulder.

"Compensating for something?" Daniel teased to Alex, which earned him a punch from Hana.

"Really?" Hana glared. "Joking after something that dramatic?"

"Now, humans," Heimdall announced. "Time to take your weapons. Now, ladies first. The Digivices will call to you, so simply wave your hands over them."

Kekio and Sheena did just that. Small bright sparks nearly magnetized the Digivices into the girls' hands. Kekio's was green with a gray side as Sheena's was a dark violet. Kekio called for her weapon to transform, granting her a rapier as Sheena's turned into a black crossbow.

"No ammo?" Sheena asked after surveying her weapon.

"I helped design these weapons," Duftmon informed them. "The ammunition will draw from your energy, so do not act rational. Use them wisely." Taking the words to heart, Sheena and Kekio willed their weapons to return to their Digivice form, which conveniently had a clip so they could attach them to their pants. Alex and Hana had already done the same.

Kekio gave Derek a high five and Sheena tapped Lance on the shoulder. Lance took a red Digivice and Derek took a blue one. Lance chuckled as Derek simply joked, "Hey, red and blue! Looks like we got rivaling colors." Derek's weapon turned into a metal staff as Lance's became a silver ring. Needless to say, Lance was not amused.

"A wristband." Lance muttered. "Really?"

Heimdall smiled. "Ah, that will allow you to use alchemy."

"Oh, alchemy? That's much better." The wristband coiled and bended until it took the shape of a spear. "Fascinating. Guess I got the upper hand in our 'rivalry', right Derek?" Lance turned his spear back into it's normal form, putting it on and stepping back.

"Guess we're up, Yusuke," Quint said. The two boys took their own Digivices, Yusuke's gold and green and Quint's crimson, purple, and black. Yusuke's became a rifle and Quint's claymore, not unlike the one he use in his Trial, then sheathed their weapons as the others.

"Come on, Danny, you're last!" Alex gave Daniel a hard pat on the back. Daniel stumbled, but managed to find keeping his footing and took his Digivice. It's designed was half black and half white, almost like a yin-yang. The Digivice shone in a black and white light, consuming Daniel's daggers. Daniel tore his Digivice in half, revealing a black dagger and a white dagger. He exchanged glances at each weapon, though it seemed scary. In the white dagger he could see his face, but in the black one he saw his face as though it were a skull. Daniel looked at the white dagger again for a boost in his mood, then he reunited his weapons as their Digivice.

Duftmon and Heimdall exchanged a glance before Duftmon spoke. "Guess it's time to reveal their Digimon, right?"

The shelf where the Digivices were in sank into the ground as the space in the wall widened until nine eggs could be seen on a line of steps, seven eggs in a row at the bottom of the steps, another behind those halfway up, and one more at the top of the steps. The eggs at the front immediately began to shake, and out came different animals. A small gray fish-like animal, a little yellow ball with a strand of three-pointed hair sprouting at the top, a blue blob with two little fins, a tail from it's head, and gold embedded onto it's forehead and the tail, two black blobs with beady yellow eyes and two stubby ears, a gray blob with a single, orange eye, and the red blob hopped it's way to Quint, who carried it in his hands.

The fish bounced it's way to Sheena, the yellow ball to Yusuke, the blue blob to Kekio, the black blobs to Lance and Derek, the gray blob wriggled to Daniel, and the red blob hopped it's way to Quint, who carried it in his hands.

"Pichimon," said the fish.

"Tsubumon," said the yellow ball.

"Ketomon," said the blue blob.

"Botamon," said the black blobs.

"Kuramon," gurgled the gray blob.

"Punimon," said the red blob.

"And now I have same one as you," Lance muttered to Derek.

"Come on, you gotta be more positive!"

The two remaining eggs all had an "X" engraved onto them.

"You sure?" Duftmon asked Heimdall.

"It has to be this way, for now."

The egg on the middle row hatched blue-white blob with tiny wings and black, beady eyes and a red blob with three red stumps and two eyes but no mouth. The blue-white blob used it's little wings to carry itself to Hana, who rested it on her shoulder.

"Pupumon," said the blue-white blob.

The last egg turned in circles until it fell onto the ground. After wriggling a while, a yellow blob with a red horn shot out and grazed Alex's neck, continuing on it's path until it got pinned to the wall. Alex ran to it, and with a little effort, managed to get it free.

"Hey, little guy, you got a name?" The little Digimon looked around, but it was stuck in Alex's hold. It seemed to be crying, but managed to tell it's name.

"Fu...I'm Fufumon."

"Fufumon, huh? I'm Alex."

Duftmon gave Heimdall a look, and the old man nodded in response. Heimdall raised his staff into the air. Suddenly, reality began to spin around everyone. The winds shifted colors like a rainbow until the room was white, and the only scenery was a large, rainbow bridge. Other than Heimdall and Duftmon, Yusuke was the only one who could surmise just what this would be.

"This must be Bïfrost. I think we've entered the Digital World."


	10. Entering a New World

"Bïfrost?" Alex asked Yusuke.

Yusuke shrugged. "Kind of just took a guess, really. This man said his name was Heimdall, the god's name is Yggdrasil, so I just used process of elimination and figured that may as well be it."

"You're a wise boy, aren't you?" Heimdall asked.

"I guess," Yusuke said.

"Well, I'll be off. Duftmon, I leave them in your care."

The humans, each carrying their newborn Digimon, turned to the lion-masked Royal Knight.

"Great, I'm stuck babysitting," Duftmon muttered.

"Don't worry, Duftmon," Sheena assured him. "We'll try not to give you too much trouble."

The large group descended down the rainbow bridge. After walking for a bit, they came to a bustling town. The buildings weren't that very tall, and there were stalls all over the place. In truth, it really looked more like a market than a town.

"So what's here?" Alex asked.

"Not much," Duftmon replied. "Heimdall's a cool guy and all, but I just don't like his style. Takes things too quickly, a bit needless. I figured I'd get you guys acquainted to this new world. You guys must be a little upset, being taken from there and all, right?"

No one bothered to answer, trying to think of what to say. They were all worried about being taken from home. Hana was the first to talk.

"How long will we be here? Are we going to go back?"

"You guys just need to help us with a couple things," Duftmon said. "See, there's a time difference between this world and your world, only it's very inconsistent. It's like a glitch, to put it simply. One day here could be like a minute in yours, but the next day could very well be a whole year, at most."

"A whole year?" Derek shouted. "How is that a "small" glitch?"

"Look, that's just how things work here. If you're lucky, you guys will only be missing for a day in your world. If it's really bothering you that much, I'm sorry."

They still couldn't just accept it. The feeling of success from being in the Trials was gone. They didn't know just what they'd gotten into until now. Their Digimon were still looking on, oblivious to the conversation. However, Lance's Botamon tried to wiggle it's way out of Lance's arms. Lance let it go, and the black blob started to bounce up and down. Lance followed it, but the rest took a look around. The people in the town looked so different from each other, it was hard to keep track. Monkeys, dogs, goblins, there were monsters that looked so different. The humans were a bit disturbed to be looking at them, and while the monsters were too, they all bowed once they saw Duftmon.

"Sir Duftmon," a goblin called out. "Thank goodness a Royal Knight is here. There have been a couple miscreants invading the town. Gazimon!"

Duftmon shrugged. "I wouldn't mind helping, but can't you guys take care of it yourself?"

"We would, but we don't want to start a fight, and they said they got reinforcements if we ever dare fight back." The goblin looked to each side, before calling Duftmon down so he could whisper. "And forgive me, but are those humans? Why have you brought them here?"

"Some plan Omnimon came up with. Let's just say they're here to help with the X Digimon."

"What? Why humans? They can't fight! And the Demon Lords are even a bigger threat! You should be worried about them!"

"Listen, Goblimon, that is not for you to decide. We're just going to have to believe that they can find the strength. Omnimon suggested this, anyway."

"I'm sorry. Forgive me."

Lance followed his Botamon through the town, ignoring the slander of the Digimon that cursed his mere presence. Some actually seemed to praise him, which he really didn't care for. Several Digimon started to rush towards him, but Alex and Yusuke stepped in front of him.

"Remember, guys, the old man said I'm the leader," Alex said. He rest Fufumon on the ground, taking his Digivice so that it became a sword. Yusuke took out his own Digivice, taking its rifle form in one hand. Tsubumon bounced alongside Fufumon and Botamon. As the Digimon approaching came closer, it became clear that they were actually running from something.

"Gazimon!" a tapir-like creature cried. Behind them pounced a quintet of gray-furred animals, slashing the poor little tapir with sharp claws before killing the others. The Digimon immediately shattered into shards of data, all of which reformed into a number of eggs. The animals, presumably the Gazimon, stood on their back legs. They all kicked an egg or two into the air, only for each egg to be grabbed my Duftmon. Turning to face them, he flew off immediately until he was nowhere to be seen.

Each Gazimon took turns talking about what they saw.

"That was a Royal Knight!"

"He could have killed us!"

"But he didn't, right?"

"What do we do now?"

"It's obvious. He's gone, so we can attack the village!"

The Gazimon roared in unison, and ran onward. Lance used a silver pole to trip the beasts, but each of them just jumped over it. The other teenagers joined in, Sheena and Yusuke firing their weapons, Alex, Hana, and Kekio charging with their swords. Derek skillfully swung his staff around at them.

Daniel started to back away, dropping his daggers.

"I-I can't fight those things!" The little Kuramon wriggled at Daniel's feet, purring. He felt a smack in the head, and Daniel turned to see it was Duftmon.

"What are you doing, just standing around for?" Duftmon asked.

"I can't fight!"

"How did you even get past the Trial? Shame that maniac who did in the Minotarumon didn't make it."

"Maniac?"

"Heimdall wanted someone else, so really only you or that girl should have made it, not both of you."

Daniel looked back at the Gazimon, who were thrashing the kids. "Duftmon! Help them!"

Most of them were cut and bruised. Hana was on the ground, holding back a Gazimon with her sword. Sheena was on her knees, slowly firing shots and missing. Kekio and Lance were stumbling on their feet, taking swings when they could. Lance chucked a number of throwing stars, which managed to pierce the Gazimon's flesh. Yusuke was firing bullets one at a time, shooting a few of the Gazimon. Alex was in a close battle with another Gazimon, blocking and striking with his sword as his opponent attacked with his claws. All the while, Quint was sitting down, playing with Punimon. The other young Digimon simply sat and watched. Duftmon only smiled.

"A good start," he told Daniel. "I think they'll survive this." Before Daniel could protest, his Kuramon began tugging at his foot.

"What's wrong, Kuramon?" Daniel asked.

"I...wanna get bigger, papa! Like the big puppies!"

"Papa?"

Duftmon said, "Digimon undergo Digivolution, where they progress to the next stage."

"How do we do that?"

"Just wait a little longer. Newborn Digimon don't take too long to become In-Training."

Alex sliced his foe across the chest, knocking it to the ground. Hana managed to push her opponent back, kicking him to the ground and holding the blade to its throat. Sheena and Yusuke had shot two down, and the last one was corned by Lance, Derek, and Kekio.

"I can't believe I actually shot one," Sheena muttered. She ran to Duftmon. "If they're dead, does anything happen to them?"

"Dead Digimon will be reincarnated. Just watch." Looking back, Sheena and the rest could see the two shot Gazimon shatter into light, reformatting into eggs. "They'll be reborn, but their memories will remain."

"Please spare me!" the Gazimon that was still under Hana's blade begged.

"Why don't you try running?" Hana asked.

"You're a human! The last time humans were here-"

"We'll do what you want!" the Gazimon lying before Alex cried. He looked at the last Gazimon. "We surrender!"

The third Gazimon held up his hands, leaving room for a punch from Lance to knock it to the ground. "Any of you know about the Demon Lords?" Lance asked.

"Of course," Alex's Gazimon said. "Thing is, we were sent here by one of Demon Lord's higher servants, goes by the name "Maja". He said we should look here for some important data, but there's been nothing but trash. We've been coming here day after day, but Maja insisted that something big would be here."

"Did he expect humans like us to come here?" Alex suggested.

"Maja's a pretty clever guy, so maybe."

"Guys, come here!" Quint called out. The eight teenagers ran back to see their young Digimon were glowing in a bright light. The Gazimon turned to run, only to find Duftmon standing in front of them.

As the Digimon were glowing, their forms began to change, and particles gathered around them.

Fufumon lost his horn, but grew into a yellow lizard with a gray underbelly, large green eyes, and little stubs where his feet should be. "Kyokyomon," it said, slithering along Alex's leg and onto his left shoulder.

Tsubomon's single hair shrunk back into its head, growing a little bigger and gaining tiny wings made of three feathers where ears would be. It used its wings to carry its tiny body atop Yusuke's head. "Upamon."

Pupumon became a bee about the size of a pigeon. Its eyes a beady black-and-green, two tiny blue antennae sticking from it's forehead. "Puroromon." It flew to Hana and nested itself in her hair.

Pichi was a small brown seal, its little ears gone, and a flame-shaped streak of orange hair sprouted from it's forehead. It cried "Bukamon!" as it waddled next to Sheena.

Ketomon sat up, gaining a cone-shaped tip and tiny little ears as took a shade of purple. "Bukamon." Kekio picked up the little creature and hugged it.

The two Botamon took upon vastly different forms. One of them turned a bright pink, two strands flowing from it's blobby form. It's eyes glimmered with an amber tint, a few sharp teeth sticking out from it's mouth. "Koromon!" It lunged at Lance, knocking him in the chest and throwing him down. "Ah, no fun," it pouted. "You're too tall."

"You're mine, right?" Lanced asked.

"Yep!"

The second Botamon had the face the fact of a blue cat, with an "M" printed on its forehead. A little blue tail wagged happily as the cat smothered Derek in the face.

"So what's your name now?" Derek smiled.

"I'm Wanyamon!"

Punimon lost it's red color and was covered in orange fur, a single black horn sticking from it's head. Quint grabbed it from the horn and wagged his finger. "Rule number one, my friend: Don't let yourself be caught so easily. Just look at yourself!" Punimon looked as if it was going to cry. "Sorry, don't be like that, Punimon."

"Call me Tsunomon."

Kuramon turned blue, growing little claws beneath its feet and two antennae. It looked down at itself then turned to Daniel. "Papa...why didn't I get bigger?" Daniel frowned, but patted the little blue creature on the head.

"It's okay, you'll get there."

"Y-Yeah! Thanks papa! That's because I'm Tsumemon now!"

"So Digimon always get different names when they evolve?" Alex asked. He looked to see Duftmon, who had tied up the three Gazimon in a rope.

"That's correct," said Duftmon. "It's just part of how we evolve."

"What should we do with those eggs?" asked Sheena. "We can't just leave them here."

"Of course you can't," said a voice. Everyone turned to see someone dressed in a mob boss suit and a ragged jacket. In his right hand he twirled a knife, and in his left hand he held a machine gun. Tiny demon wings stuck out from behind his back, but to everyone else what was more frightening was his face. He had the face of a black demon, empty red eyes and a pair of horns on his head. A mane of white hair flowed behind his back. Immediately, he threw the knife straight through the eggs that lied on the ground. Duftmon charged at the demon with a raised sword, but was shot back with bullets from the machine gun.

"I totally called it," the demon sneered. "Those rats probably already spoiled it, but I had a vision that humans would arrive in this very spot."

"Please, Lord Maja!" one of the Gazimon plead. "Spare us, kill them!"

"Nah, how about a game first?" He pointed his machine gun at the three Gazimon. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!" Without even moving his gun, the other two Gazimon were shot clean in the head. The Gazimon, the humans, the young Digimon, and all the Digimon in the town couldn't help but watch in horror. "See, Gazimon, I said I wanted to play a game. You know my Auroramon likes to play favorites, that's why I only shot two bullets. The bullets like you, so I like you too. Come on, let's get out of here."

Gazimon still couldn't look up from his fellow Gazimon as they were turned to eggs. "You bastard, why did you kill them?"

"Two of you were already dead when I got here, you couldn't get beat these kids, and honestly, I'm just bored."

As the killed Gazimon reformed into eggs, the remaining Gazimon made his way out of the rope and charged at the demon. "Curse you, Maja!" Maja delivered a punch to the Gazimon's face, knocking him down. Sheen and Yusuke prepared their weapons to fire, but Maja grabbed the Gazimon and the two eggs, flying away from the humans, but he still called out to them as he fled.

"I had a vision of humans coming to this world after so long! I wanted to see how you're like, and I like you! Can't way to see when I won't need you anymore!"


	11. BONUS: D:HP Revamp Ch 1

**Author's Note: **A few months after I first discontinued Hopeless Paradise, I made my first attempt at revamping the story. I'm much more satisfied with this first chapter, officially titled "Prelude to Disaster", than I was the first chapter of the original story. Of course, they both share a glaring similarity, but I feel that this has a better way of kicking off the plot.

* * *

**_Digimon: Hopeless Paradise_ Revamp Chapter 1: Prelude to Disaster**

A young knight's feet scraped the dirt, running as fast as he could. It was Kotemon, holding what he was supposed to deliver close to his chest. Omnimon had specifically instructed that he was supposed to bring it to a shrine underground. It was nighttime, and by now there were bound to be some troublemakers around here, bur he felt confident that he wasn't going to be attacked.

"It's okay, Kotemon," he told himself. "Lord Omnimon trusts you, so you can do this. Just be careful."

Immediately he jumped when he found himself surrounded by dozens of ghosts. They looked like nothing more than floating bedsheets with big black eyes and eight sharp teeth. Kotemon recognized them as Bakemon.

"What brings you here?" one of the Bakemon asked.

A little red light started to shine from a black box Kotemon was holding in his hand, so he showed it to the Bakemon. "I'm here under the orders of Royal Knights, to bring this box here."

The Bakemon looked at each other, then back to Kotemon. "You're Kotemon, right?," one of them said. "Just go right in. We don't get many guests, let alone visitors that come to pray." As one of them flew right under the floor, a secret door in the ground popped open. "In fact, sometimes others just want to desecrate the shine, so we keep things underground."

Kotemon followed two Bakemon underground. It was dark, but Kotemon was able to make out the shapes of the Bakemon right in front of him, so he didn't fall behind.

"Have the Seven Demon Lords' forces been here?" Kotemon asked.

"Yes," one of the Bakemon said. "Though we've had someone on guard here to drive them away: Gallantmon."

"He's been here? Lord Omnimon didn't want to share his whereabouts when I asked about him. He said that if I got captured, the enemy might make me reveal the locations of all the Royal Knights."

"You fool!" the other Bakemon said as he slapped the first Bakemon. "Now what will happen if someone comes here and catches us?"

Kotemon's attention was drawn to a red light coming from the center of the room, but the Bakemon seemed more concerned with slapping each other. Kotemon shook his head and left the two to their antics, reminding himself of why he was there. He could see a round pedestal slowly rise from the center of the red light. Kotemon opened the box in his hand, taking a red crystalline sphere in his hand that glowed with the same light as the pedestal. Kotemon approached the pedestal and inserted the sphere into an impression on it, and it snapped perfectly into place. Red trails on the ground immediately lit up, weaving and turning as they climbed up the walls and reached the surface, meeting into a a circle directly above the pedestal. A pillar of light shot from the center of the circle and connected to the pillar.

Kotemon felt a breeze around him as he heard the shrieks of the Bakemon. He shivered, and slowly turned to find the edge of the lance pointed right at his throat. The owner of the lance was a knight covered entirely in white armor with a red helmet in the shape of a dragon's head. To his side, he held a shield. A red cape flowed behind the knight, and the Bakemon fell to the floor, desperate to keep it from touching the floor. Gallantmon stared at Kotemon for a few seconds, only to put his weapon down a few seconds later.

"My apologies, Kotemon," Gallantmon said. "Omnimon said you'd be here, but you can't be too careful with the Demon Lords' lackeys running around."

Kotemon sighed in relief before turing to the pedestal. "So, what is the place for, anyway, Lord Gallantmon?"

"Omnimon believes that we should recruit inhabitants from the Outer World. He thinks that they can help us defeat the Seven Demon Lords. I share his sentiment that they need to be destroyed, but I have doubts that humans would be of any help."

The Bakemon let go of Gallantmon's cape and flew up behind him, only to find themselves consumed by flames. Kotemon hid behind the pedestal as Gallantmon turned around. Before him stood a six-winged demon with a golden mask. A hand with long nails gripped a staff that carried a skull at it's tip, a red orb gripped in its golden fangs.

"Barbamon," Gallantmon said. "How did you find this place?"

"It wasn't that hard," Barbamon sneered as he pointed at Kotemon with his free hand. "I simply followed that little Digimon under the cover of the night."

Gallantmon positioned his shield in front of him. Symbols surrounded the edge of it, and began to glow. "Kotemon, get behind me." Kotemon ran behind Gallantmon, shaking as he held onto the Royal Knight's cape. "Shield of the Just!" A beam of light blasted from the shield and began to close in on Barbamon, who held up his staff.

"Crimson Flame!" Barbamon called. Fire burst from the orb on his staff and spiraled as the flames collided with the beam of light. Barbamon held his staff forward to keep the flames going, but Gallantmon countered by pushing his shield forward.

Gallantmon turned his head toward Kotemon. "Kotemon, run!"

Kotemon shook his head. "What about you?"

"Don't worry. That gem Omnimon asked you to deliver is a key to the Other World. Press the gem, and you'll be taken there. As long as you have that, you can come back here. Find a human and bring them here. You'll receive word soon, so do what you can."

"Giving orders even in the middle of a fight?" Barbamon teased. "You Royal Knights are bossy until the end."

Gallantmon ignored the Demon Lord's taunt. "Kotemon, just do it!"

Kotemon hesitated for a moment, but turned to the pedestal and pressed the gem. The world around him turned a bright red as he was surrounded by a pillar of light, but he could make out the image of Barbamon's flames overpowering Gallantmon as the Royal Knight began to fade into a particles of light. The particles flew towards Kotemon as the gem slipped out of the pedestal and into Kotemon's hand. The particles enveloped the gem as it transformed into a metal device. It was red, rectangular in shape, and held a screen in the center with a golden rim around it. Kotemon could barely make out the image of an egg on the screen, but his attention turned to the yell of Barbamon.

"The Other World!" Barbamon called out, trying to pierce the red light. The pillar expanded and pushed Barbamon back. Kotemon watched as the squares in the light began to form as the beam turned green and white, and soon the image of Barbamon disappeared. Barbamon wasn't dead; Kotemon figured as such. Instead, he was being teleported. Kotemon felt like he was being pulled into a vortex, and he screamed like he was being pulled down by a hand dragging him down. It was a natural fear, he thought, but he knew what was happening to him. Kotemon was going to the Other World - the realm of humans.


End file.
